The Rockdale News Rockdale News Digital Edition January 7, 2015 | Page 5

In Depth
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015

DOLLREE MAPP
‘Rosa Parks of the Fourth Amendment’ fought historic Supreme
Court case, passed away in Conyers

By john ruch

“M

rs. Dollree Mapp passed on Friday, October
31, 2014,” read the obituary released by the
local Gregory B. Levett and Sons Funeral

Home.
That brief notice gave no hint that Dollree was the namesake of Mapp v. Ohio, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case
that requires the police to get a warrant to search someone’s
property.
In 1957, police conducted an illegal raid of Mapp’s Cleveland home. Mapp fought the case all the way to the Supreme
Court, finally winning the historic decision in 1961. She later
moved to New York City, then spent the past two years living
with family in Conyers. She died at the age of 91.
“She was staying down here. She had dementia, so she
had to come here,” said niece Carolyn Mapp of Amberbrook
Court in Conyers, who shared her home with Dollree.
Chief Judge David Irwin of Rockdale’s Superior Court told
the News he was astonished to learn the defendant in such a
historic case was living in Conyers. He would have liked the
chance to speak with Mapp about the case, he said.
“It is remarkable that what we consider as our right [to be
secure against illegal police searches]…did not happen until
the Mapp case,” Irwin said. “A right we think we’re automatically born with only came to pass in the past 50 or 60 years.”
Today, every lawyer studies Mapp v. Ohio in law school and
every law enforcement officer learns about the case in peace
officer academy. It is considered a fundamental Bill of Rights
case that expanded the Fourth Amendment’s protections
against “unreasonable searches and seizures.” Because of the
case, Irwin said, he and other judges regularly review and sign
search warrants. And as a former public defender, Irwin was
able to get some evidence in cases tossed out because of the
Mapp case standard.
In its time, the case had racial undertone as well, as Mapp
was black and the police officers were white. In a recent
obituary for Mapp in the magazine Essence, a law professor
described her as the “Rosa Parks of the Fourth Amendment.”
In 1957, Dollree—better known as Dolly—and her teenRead more

Listen to the oral
arguements of the
1961 Supreme Court
Mapp vs. Ohio case

Other landmark cases affecting law
enforcement/court procedure today
n

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

- being informed of right to an attorney and
against self-incrimination
n

Terry v. Ohio (1967)

- when police are permitted to stop and to frisk

n

Gideon vs. Wainright (1962)

- right to an attorney, even if you can’t afford one