Payton v. New York

A few years prior to the Payton decision, the Supreme Court held in United States v. Watson that the police may arrest a felony suspect in a public place without obtaining an arrest warrant. The Court's decision in Payton made clear that this rule does not extend to arrests which occur in the home, due to the Fourth Amendment's particular protection of the home, where a person's privacy interest is nearly absolute. Thus it is clear after Payton that in the absence of certain emergency, or "exigent," circumstances such as where there is a possibility that the suspect will escape, destroy evidence, or harm the police or others, the police must obtain a warrant from a judge before entering a person's home to make a felony arrest. Further, the holding of Payton has been extended to prohibit warrantless entry into a home to arrest a guest in the home.