Lavone Ganithus Dixon, Jr. v. United States
FourthAmendment CriminalProcedure
Whether the federal prosecution's reliance on an unfiled state search warrant constitutes structural error
QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. As Courts of the United States are Courts of Record, is it structural error for the federal Prosecution to rely upon a state search warrant for the admission of evidence without making such search warrant part of the formal record of the United States District Court by filing it with the District Court? Does the virtually universal practice of federal prosecutors of obtaining state search warrants, then using those state search warrants in federal prosecutions without filing those state search warrants with the District Court, constitute structural error as said warrants usually are critical to the outcome of the case? Is the Constitutionally mandated structure for a search of Petitioner’s residence, i.e., the existence of a search warrant, violated by holding that an unfiled document not included in the formal record of the state court of record constitutes a search warrant? Does this constitute structural error? ii