ABSTRACT
In County of Riverside v. McLaughlin, 500 US 44, the US Supreme Court analyzed whether there was a requisite time limit within which individuals arrested without a warrant were entitled to appear before a neutral magistrate following the arrest. Riverside County, California, incorporated probable cause determinations into its arraignment procedure. In Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 US 103, the Court held that this appearance before a magistrate should occur "without unnecessary delay," but did not set forth a specific standard to determine unnecessary delay. Rather, the Gerstein Court required that persons arrested without warrants have "prompt" judicial determinations of the existence of probable cause. The Court concluded that hearings conducted within forty-eight hours of arrest would, "as a general matter, comply with the promptness requirements of Gerstein." Gerstein violations may occur within the first forty-eight hours, but the burden of demonstrating unreasonable delay rests with the arrested party.
