Cite as: 528 U. S. 11 (1999)
Per Curiam
In briefs to the trial court, petitioner contended that Mincey v. Arizona, supra, rejects a "crime scene exception" to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. The State also cited Mincey; it argued that the police may conduct an immediate investigation of a crime scene to preserve evidence from intentional or accidental destruction, id., at 394, and characterized the police activity in this case as "crime scene search and inventory," Brief in Opposition 12. The State also relied on the "plain view" exception, Mincey, supra, at 393 (citing Michigan v. Tyler, 436 U. S. 499, 509-510 (1978)), noting only, however, that the briefcase was unlocked.
In denying the motion, the trial court said nothing about inventory or plain view, but instead approved the search as one of a "homicide crime scene":
"The Court also concludes that investigating officers, having secured, for investigative purposes, the homicide crime scene, were clearly within the law to conduct a thorough investigation and examination of anything and everything found within the crime scene area. The examination of [the] briefcase found on the table near the body of a homicide victim in this case is clearly something an investigating officer could lawfully examine." App. A to Pet. for Cert., at 3.
After hearing an oral presentation of petitioner's petition for appeal of this ruling, and with the full record before it, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia denied discretionary review. No. 982196 (Jan. 13, 1999), App. B to Pet. for Cert.
A warrantless search by the police is invalid unless it falls within one of the narrow and well-delineated exceptions to the warrant requirement, Katz v. United States, 389 U. S. 347, 357 (1967), none of which the trial court invoked
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