State v. Leonidas Lowry(Louisiana Search Warrant Timing and Cell Phones)

This episode discusses the Louisiana Supreme Court and Louisiana Court of Appeal, Fifth Circuit decisions in the criminal case of State v. Leonidas Lowry, who was convicted of second-degree murder. The core issue addressed in both rulings is the denial of Lowry’s motion to suppress evidence extracted from his cell phone, which was seized under a warrant but analyzed more than ten days after its issuance, potentially violating La. C.Cr.P. art. 163(C). The Court of Appeal affirmed the denial by interpreting the statute in effect at the time, which permitted the examination of seized property to be conducted at any time during the criminal proceeding. The Supreme Court also affirmed the ruling but faced a partial dissent and a concurrence regarding whether the later 2019 amendment to the statute, which specifically addresses the extraction of electronic device data, should apply retroactively to clarify the law. Ultimately, both appellate courts concluded that the delay in analyzing the cell phone data was permissible, leading to the affirmation of Lowry's conviction and sentence.