Title: Walker v. State
Citation: 192 So. 2d 270
Docket Number: 44147
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: November 21, 1966

192 So. 2d 270 (1966) Alvie James WALKER v. STATE of Mississippi. No. 44147. Supreme Court of Mississippi. November 21, 1966. *271 Garland D. Upton, Columbia, for appellant. Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen., by G. Garland Lyell, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee. ROBERTSON, Justice: The Appellant, Alvie James Walker, was found guilty of possession of intoxicating liquor by a Justice of the Peace of the Second District of Walthall County, Mississippi Walker appealed to the Circuit Court of Walthall County and upon a trial de novo was again found guilty and was sentenced to pay a fine of $200 and to serve 30 days in the Walthall County jail with the jail sentence being suspended during two years good behavior. From this judgment of the Circuit Court, the appellant has appealed to this Court. The affidavit for a search warrant in the instant case is subject to the same objections and condemnation as was the affidavit and warrant in O'Bean v. State, 184 So. 2d 635 (Miss., 1966), and for this reason, the judgment of the lower court must be reversed and judgment rendered here for the appellant. The pertinent part of the affidavit is, as follows: The search warrant itself recites in part as follows: The affidavit and search warrant in the O'Bean case were in almost the identical language. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides that: The provisions of the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures and against the issuance of a search warrant except upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, were made applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Mapp v. State of Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S. Ct. 1684, 6 L. Ed. 2d 1081 (1961). *273 This Court in the O'Bean case discussed Mapp v. State of Ohio and the later case of Aguilar v. State of Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S. Ct. 1509, 12 L. Ed. 2d 723 (1964). In summarizing the holding in Aguilar v. State of Texas, supra, this Court said: The United States Supreme Court held in Aguilar that the affidavit was not sufficient to meet the requirements of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution inasmuch as it did not include any facts upon which the magistrate could "judge for himself the persuasiveness of the facts relied on * * * to show probable cause." The affidavit for the search warrant in the instant case similarly does not allege any facts or circumstances from which the justice of the peace could judicially ascertain or determine probable cause. It sets forth nothing more than the mere conclusion of the affiant founded upon what he considered credible information. The affidavit does not, therefore, meet the requirements of the Fourth Amendment as defined in Aguilar and O'Bean. These fatal defects in the affidavit are not cured by the following language in the search warrant: Neither the affidavit nor the search warrant lists any of the underlying facts or circumstances upon which a judicial determination could be made as to whether probable cause existed. We said in O'Bean: The judgment of the lower court is, therefore, reversed and judgment rendered here for the appellant. Reversed and judgment here for appellant. GILLESPIE, P.J., and RODGERS, PATTERSON and INZER, JJ., concur.