Case Title: Kinard v. State

Citation: 335 So. 2d 924

Docket Number: 

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1976-06-04T00:00:00Z

Document:
335 So. 2d 924 (1976)
In re Joseph A. KINARD
v.
STATE of Alabama.
Ex parte Joseph A. Kinard.
SC 1544.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
June 4, 1976.
*925 Thomas M. Haas and Neil L. Hanley, Mobile, for petitioner.
William J. Baxley, Atty. Gen., and Jane LeCroy Robbins, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State, respondent.
BLOODWORTH, Justice.
This petition for certiorari presents two issues for our determination:
We answer both questions in the negative. We reverse and remand the judgment of affirmance of the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Simply stated, the facts are these. Officer Lundy stopped petitioner's van truck solely for "an I.D. check." The officer got out, as did petitioner, and they met between the vehicles where petitioner showed the officer his driver's license. Whereupon, Officer Lundy walked to the passenger's side of the van, opened the door, shined his flashlight in the front of the van and saw a cellophane bag, in the ashtray, with "some small pink pills" in it. Along with another officer, Lundy took the cellophane bag out of the ashtray, reached under the dash and took out a "couple of prescription bottles" with "some pills" in it, other cellophane bags of pills, and "some marijuana." Petitioner was arrested and charged with possession of marihuana for personal use. He was convicted of this charge in this case.
We assume, without deciding, that the initial stopping of the vehicle "for an I.D. check" was lawful. We must agree, however, with the well-reasoned dissent of Judge Bookout who concludes that both the *926 seizure of the pills and the resulting search and seizure of the marihuana contravened the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution as interpreted by the decisions of the United States Supreme Court, which we are constrained by law to follow.
At the outset it should be stated that the most basic constitutional rule pertaining to warrantless searches is that such searches
Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S. Ct. 2022, 29 L. Ed. 2d 564 (1971).
The "plain view" exception, under which the Court of Criminal Appeals justifies seizure of the cellophane bag of pills, must fail for two reasons.
First, there is no prior justification given for the "initial intrusion" by the officer into the van truck by opening the front door and shining his flashlight into the van where he observed the cellophane bag with pink pills in the open ashtray. [We do not suggest that the use of the flashlight in itself has any significance in this case. It does not.]
Of course, in nearly every case, evidence seized by police will be in "plain view" at the moment of seizure. Just because the officer sees something does not make it seizable under the "plain view" doctrine.
As the United States Supreme Court articulated the "plain view" doctrine in Coolidge, supra:
It is well-settled law that a search cannot be made legal by what is turned up by the search. See Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S. Ct. 407, 9 L. Ed. 2d 441 (1963).
Thus, it is that, in the instant case, the facts articulated will not bring the case within the "plain view" doctrine because, first, there was no prior justification for the initial intrusion into the van by the officer.
Second, the "plain view" exception must fail because there are no facts shown to indicate that the incriminating nature of the object in "plain view" was apparent to the officer at the time of its seizure. We have held that
Shipman v. State, 291 Ala. 484, 282 So. 2d 700 (1973).
Furthermore, we agree with Judge Bookout that there were no facts to establish "probable cause" for the search and *927 seizure of the marihuana under the "exigent circumstances and probable cause" exception, and therefore that exception too must fail.
In view of the result we reach, we need not write to the other issue raisedwhether the Court of Criminal Appeals erred in following our case of Brantley v. State, 294 Ala. 344, 317 So. 2d 345 (1975).
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
HEFLIN, C. J., and FAULKNER, JONES, ALMON, SHORES and EMBRY, JJ., concur.
MADDOX, J., dissents.