Opinion ID: 786677
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Validity of the Parole Conditions

Text: 197 Judge Trott contends in his separate opinion that the parties in this case have misunderstood the legal status of a Fourth Waiver form. As I understand his argument, Judge Trott contends that at all relevant times California had the authority under state law to enter into an agreement with a would-be probationer, but did not have such authority with a would-be parolee. According to Judge Trott, the State unilaterally imposes conditions of parole, in contrast to conditions of probation, which are established by agreement between the State and the would-be probationer. 198 Judge Trott relies on the decision of the California Supreme Court in People v. Reyes, 19 Cal.4th 743, 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 734, 968 P.2d 445 (1998). In explaining why consent by a would-be parolee cannot be used to validate an otherwise illegal search, the court wrote, in language quoted by Judge Trott: 199 The consent exception to the warrant requirement may not be invoked to validate the search of an adult parolee because, under the Determinate Sentencing Act of 1976, parole is not a matter of choice. The Board of Prison Terms must provide a period of parole; the prisoner must accept it. (Pen.Code § 3000 et seq.) Without choice, there can be no voluntary consent to inclusion of the search condition. 200 Id. at 448 (citation omitted) (italics indicate sentence not quoted in Judge Trott's opinion). Under this reasoning, the State has no authority to bargain with the would-be parolee, and therefore lacks the authority to threaten to withhold parole unless the parolee agrees to waive some or all of his Fourth Amendment rights. Judge Trott thus argues that what the parties in this case call a Fourth Waiver form is not an agreement under which the parolee agrees to waive his Fourth Amendment rights in order to gain parole. Rather, the Fourth Waiver form is a notification to the parolee of conditions unilaterally imposed upon him by the State. 201 Judge Trott understands California law somewhat differently from the Deputy Attorney General representing the State as amicus, and from the Assistant United States Attorney. During oral argument to our en banc court, both attorneys represented that the conditions of parole at issue in this case were at all relevant times a matter of agreement between the State and the parolee. Both attorneys told us that if California state prisoners choose not to waive their Fourth Amendment rights as a condition of being granted parole, those prisoners do not get parole and stay in prison. The Deputy Attorney General, in particular, represented that California law has changed since the California Supreme Court's decision in Reyes. The State's brief maintains that between March 1, 2001 and October 1, 2003, sixty-seven inmates refused to sign new conditions of parole and were returned to prison. 202 In some circumstances, it might matter whether conditions of parole are unilaterally imposed by the State, as contended by Judge Trott, or are imposed pursuant to an agreement between the State and the parolee, as contended by the Deputy Attorney General and the Assistant United States Attorney. In this case, however, it does not matter. For the purposes of this case, I assume that the conditions contained in the Fourth Waiver form signed by Crawford are valid. They may be valid because, as Judge Trott contends, the State had the power unilaterally to impose them. Or they may be valid because Crawford agreed to them as a condition of gaining parole. Or, indeed, they may be invalid. But it makes no difference in this case, for in no event do the conditions of parole in the Fourth Waiver form authorize a suspicionless search of Crawford's residence to investigate a pre-parole crime.