What Is Required For a Valid Consent Search In Virginia ?

In Bumper v. North Carolina, 391 U.S. 543, 20 L. Ed. 2d 797, 88 S. Ct. 1788 (1968), the United States Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizures may be waived, orally or in writing, by voluntary consent to a warrantless search of a person, property or premises. Implicit in the waiver of the warrant requirement is the waiver of the requirement of probable cause. The test of a valid consent search is whether it was "freely and voluntarily given." . . . The question of whether a particular "consent to a search was in fact voluntary or was the product of duress or coercion, express or implied, is a question of fact to be determined from the totality of all the circumstances." Deer v. Commonwealth, 17 Va. App. 730, 734-35, 441 S.E.2d 33, 36 (1994)