Title: Barker v. State
Citation: 241 So. 2d 355
Docket Number: 45904
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: November 16, 1970

241 So. 2d 355 (1970) Richard W. BARKER v. STATE of Mississippi. No. 45904. Supreme Court of Mississippi. November 16, 1970. *356 Barnett, Montgomery, McClintock &amp; Cunningham, Nolle T. Roberts, Jackson, for appellant. A.F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by Velia Ann Mayer, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee. INZER, Justice. Appellant, Richard W. Barker, was indicted, tried and convicted in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County for the crime of possession of marijuana. He was sentenced to serve a term of five years in the State Penitentiary and to pay a fine of $2,000. From this conviction he appeals. We reverse and render. In the early morning hours of March 8, 1969, the police officers of the City of Jackson armed with a search warrant searched the residence of appellant. The only evidence upon which appellant was convicted was procured as a result of this search. At every appropriate stage of the proceeding appellant questioned the validity of the search warrant. He contended in the trial court that the warrant was issued without probable cause and that the search was unreasonable and in violation of his rights under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and Mississippi Constitution, Article 3, Section 23 (1890). One of the assignments of error on this appeal was that the trial court was in error in overruling appellant's objection to the introduction in evidence of the affidavit and search warrant and the evidence secured thereunder for the reason there was not probable cause for the search as required by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and Mississippi Constitution, Article 3, Section 23 (1890). This assignment brings into focus the question of whether the officers had probable cause sufficient to support the application for the search warrant as required by the decisions of the United States Supreme Court and the decisions of this Court. In O'Bean v. State, 184 So. 2d 635 (Miss. 1966), we pointed out that we are constrained to follow the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in regard to the standards that must be applied in determining probable cause under the Fourth Amendment. We also pointed out the standards required by Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84A S.Ct. 1509, 12 L. Ed. 2d 723 (1964) required that the affidavit seeking a search warrant must contain sufficient underlying facts and circumstances from which a detached and neutral judge must ascertain that probable cause does exist for the issuance of the warrant. We also specifically overruled Mai v. State, 152 Miss. 225, 119 So. 177 (1928). Consequently, it is no longer the law of this state that the issuance of a search warrant is conclusive judicial finding of the magistrate of the existence of probable cause. Inquiry may now be made at the trial as to whether probable cause existed before the issuance of the search warrant. In Strode v. State, 231 So. 2d 779 (Miss. 1970), we said: It is with the foregoing test in mind that we must examine the affidavit for the search warrant in this case to determine whether it was sufficient for the magistrate to reasonably find probable cause for the issuance of the search warrant in this case. The facts contained in the affidavit as grounds for the issuance of the search warrant are as follows: It is not contended that the officers brought to the attention of the magistrate any other information that they had which was considered by the magistrate in finding probable cause. Consequently, if probable cause existed it must be found from the foregoing statement. Part I of the test, sometimes referred to as the basis-of-knowledge test, demands that the informer or the officer have obtained knowledge by personal observation or some other dependable means that an offense was being committed on the premises to be searched. In other words, in determining probable cause the magistrate's first question to the officers should have been, "How do you, or your informer, know that there is marijuana on these premises?" The statement of facts in this case only reflects that the appellant had in his possession at the home of the informer three marijuana cigarettes, some two weeks prior to the issuance of the search warrant. To say that the fact that appellant had on one occasion had marijuana in his possession at a place other than at his residence was sufficient knowledge to find probable cause existed to search his residence would be absurd. These facts raise no more than a mere suspicion that appellant might have marijuana at his residence without anything else to cause the suspicion to ripen into a judgment that a crime was being committed on the premises. Suspicion without anything more is not sufficient to constitute probable cause under any standard. The statement of underlying facts in this case also fails to pass Part II of the test. If we assume that the laboratory tests showing the cigarettes to contain marijuana is sufficient corroboration to show that the informer was reliable, there is nothing in the statement of facts from which the magistrate could find that the informer's informer was reliable. One of the purposes for the test is to guard against tips provided by untruthful or unreliable informers. It may well be that the informer's wife is a reliable person but there *358 is nothing in the statement of underlying facts from which the magistrate could find that she was reliable. The crucial question is whether the appellant was the person who furnished her the cigarettes. She could have obtained them from other sources and for some reason told her husband that the appellant gave them to her. The officers made no independent investigation to determine whether she was reliable. The underlying facts upon which the warrant was issued is likewise insufficient for a magistrate to find probable cause under our own constitutional standard. We have always followed the rule that the provisions for search and seizure are strictly construed against the state and in favor of the citizen. In Elardo v. State, 164 Miss. 628, 145 So. 615 (1933), an officer received information from an informer who told the officer that he, the informer, had information that a truck was stalled on a certain street with a load of illegal liquor. The officer, acting upon the information, went to the place and found the truck which he searched and discovered a large quantity of liquor. This Court held that the officer did not have probable cause to make the search. Although this was a search without a warrant, it was pointed out if the officer had appeared before an officer authorized to issue a search warrant that a warrant could not issue upon such information. In discussing the information furnished the officer this Court said: In McGowan v. State, 184 Miss. 96, 185 So. 826 (1939), we reaffirmed what we had stated in Elardo, supra and said: It is clear in this case that the officers making the affidavit had no information that an offense was being committed on the premises to be searched and that the information furnished was not based upon the personal knowledge of the informer. The underlying facts in this case are not sufficient for a detached and neutral magistrate to find probable cause existed to search appellant's residence. It follows that the search was illegal; the evidence obtained thereby was not admissible; and that the trial court was in error in overruling appellant's objection to its admission. There being no other evidence upon which the conviction of the appellant can be sustained, the judgment of the circuit court will be reversed and the appellant discharged. Reversed and rendered. ETHRIDGE, C.J., and RODGERS, JONES, BRADY, PATTERSON, and SMITH, JJ., concur. GILLESPIE, P.J., and ROBERTSON, J., dissent. GILLESPIE, Presiding Justice (dissenting). I respectfully dissent. Because of the decision in Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S. Ct. 584, 21 L. Ed. 2d 637 (1969), this is a close case. However, I believe the peculiar facts stated in the "underlying facts and circumstances" statement attached to the affidavit for the search warrant distinguish this case from Spinelli, supra. I am in accord with Mr. Justice Black in his dissent in Spinelli, supra, in which he said that the Supreme Court of the United States is moving rapidly, through complex analyses and obfuscatory language, toward holding that no magistrate can issue a warrant unless, according to some unknown standard of proof, he can be persuaded that the suspect-defendant is actually guilty of a crime. Spinelli, supra, makes it so difficult to obtain a search warrant that an officer cannot reasonably be expected to know what ought to be in the affidavit when the judges of the highest court in the land cannot agree on a standard. For this reason Spinelli, supra, ought to be followed only when it is precisely in point; provided the search was not in fact unreasonable when tested by common-sense standards. ROBERTSON, J., joins in this dissent.