Opinion ID: 2077755
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Heading: Lawfulness of the search of a container within a container incident to a lawful arrest.

Text: Carter relies on the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 26 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights in support of her challenge of the search of her lunch bag and package of cigarettes contained therein. The Fourth Amendment provides: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. U.S. CONST. AMEND. IV. Article 26 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights states [t]hat all warrants, without oath or affirmation, to search suspected places, or to seize any person or property, are grevious [grievous] and oppressive; and all general warrants to search suspected places, or to apprehend suspected persons, without naming or describing the place, or the person in special, are illegal, and ought not to be granted. Md. Dec. of Rights, Art. 26. We have stated that Art. 26 is considered in pari materia with the Fourth Amendment, such that we accord great respect and deference to the decisions of the United States Supreme Court in interpreting the federal amendment. See Richardson v. McGriff, 361 Md. 437, 452-53, 762 A.2d 48, 56 (2000); Little v. State, 300 Md. 485, 493, n. 3, 479 A.2d 903, 907, n. 3 (1984). We consider whether Officer Cirko's warrantless search incident to arrest of Carter's lunch bag and the cigarette pack contained therein was reasonable. We have explained that the Fourth Amendment prohibits only those searches and seizures found to be unreasonable under the circumstances. See Gadson v. State, 341 Md. 1, 9, 668 A.2d 22, 26 (1995), cert. denied, 517 U.S. 1203, 116 S.Ct. 1704, 134 L.Ed.2d 803 (1996); Little v. State, 300 Md. at 493, 479 A.2d at 907; see also United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 682, 105 S.Ct. 1568, 1573, 84 L.Ed.2d 605, 613 (1985). Carter asks this Court to adopt a rule which would limit warrantless searches incident to arrest to those searches directed at locating weapons or evidence of the crime for which the person has been arrested. In Carter's view, these would be the only searches meeting the reasonableness requirement of the Fourth Amendment, and thus, the search of Carter's lunch bag and cigarette pack would fail. The Supreme Court previously has established readily administrable rules for warrantless searches incident to arrest through its decisions in Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969) [4] and United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218, 94 S.Ct. 467, 38 L.Ed.2d 427 (1973). [5] Prior to the decision in Chimel, the Supreme Court had held that when a search is conducted incident to a lawful arrest, whatever is found upon his person or in his control which it is unlawful for him to have and which may be used to prove the offense may be seized and held as evidence.... Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 158, 45 S.Ct. 280, 287, 69 L.Ed. 543, 553 (1925). Thereafter in Chimel, the Supreme Court set forth the following standards for searches incident to lawful arrests: When an arrest is made, it is reasonable for the arresting officer to search the person arrested in order to remove any weapons that the latter might seek to use in order to resist arrest or effect his escape. Otherwise, the officer's safety might well be endangered, and the arrest itself frustrated. In addition, it is entirely reasonable for the arresting officer to search for and seize any evidence on the arrestee's person in order to prevent its concealment or destruction. And the area into which an arrestee might reach in order to grab a weapon or evidentiary items must, of course, be governed by a like rule. A gun on a table or in a drawer in front of one who is arrested can be as dangerous to the arresting officer as one concealed in the clothing of the person arrested. There is ample justification, therefore, for a search of the arrestee's person and the area within his immediate control construing that phrase to mean the area from within which he might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evidence. Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. at 762-63, 89 S.Ct. at 2040, 23 L.Ed.2d at 694. In Robinson, the Court further refined the doctrine espoused in Chimel as follows: The authority to search the person incident to a lawful custodial arrest, while based upon the need to disarm and to discover evidence, does not depend on what a court may later decide was the probability in a particular arrest situation that weapons or evidence would in fact be found upon the person of the suspect. A custodial arrest of a suspect based on probable cause is a reasonable intrusion under the Fourth Amendment; that intrusion being lawful, a search incident to the arrest requires no additional justification. It is the fact of the lawful arrest which establishes the authority to search, and we hold that in the case of a lawful custodial arrest a full search of the person is not only an exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment, but is also a reasonable search under that Amendment. Robinson, 414 U.S. at 235, 94 S.Ct. at 477, 38 L.Ed.2d at 440-41; see United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 122, 104 S.Ct. 1652, 1661, 80 L.Ed.2d 85, 100 (1984)(The concept of an interest in privacy that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable is, by its very nature, critically different from the mere expectation, however well justified, that certain facts will not come to the attention of the authorities). Previously we have relied on the Supreme Court's decision in Robinson in recognizing that the right of the police to search a suspect incident to a lawful arrest follows automatically from the arrest. State v. Evans, 352 Md. 496, 508, 723 A.2d 423, 429, cert. denied, 528 U.S. 833, 120 S.Ct. 310, 145 L.Ed.2d 77 (1999)(citing Robinson, 414 U.S. at 225-26, 94 S.Ct. at 472, 38 L.Ed.2d at 435). In clarifying the point made in Robinson that there need be no additional justification for the search incident to arrest, the Supreme Court has stated, it is the fact of custodial arrest which gives rise to the authority to search ... such that the officer need not indicate any subjective fear of the arrestee or suspect that the arrestee was armed. Gustafson v. Florida, 414 U.S. 260, 266, 94 S.Ct. 488, 492, 38 L.Ed.2d 456, 461 (1973). In Gustafson, the arresting officer found marijuana cigarettes inside of a cigarette box located in the defendant's front coat pocket following a lawful arrest for driving without a driver's license. Id. at 262, 94 S.Ct. at 490, 38 L.Ed.2d at 459. The Supreme Court found that the officer was entitled to seize the marijuana cigarettes as `fruits, instrumentalities, or contraband' probative of criminal conduct. Id. at 266, 94 S.Ct. at 492, 38 L.Ed.2d at 462 (citing Robinson, 414 U.S. at 236, 94 S.Ct. at 477, 38 L.Ed.2d at 441; Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 149, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 1925, 32 L.Ed.2d 612, 619 (1972); Warden v. Hayden, 387 U.S. 294, 307, 87 S.Ct. 1642, 1650, 18 L.Ed.2d 782, 792 (1967); Harris v. United States, 331 U.S. 145, 154-155, 67 S.Ct. 1098, 1103, 91 L.Ed. 1399, 1407-08 (1947)). We find, therefore, that the officer's warrantless search of Carter's lunch bag was a lawful search incident to arrest. Remaining for our consideration is petitioner's contention that the police exceeded the scope of what would otherwise be a lawful warrantless search incident to arrest by searching the open cigarette pack found inside the lunch bag. Carter argues that the warrantless search of the container within a container is unreasonable under the facts and circumstances of this case and exceeds the scope of what otherwise might be considered a valid search incident to arrest. While this Court has not previously considered the validity of a warrantless search incident to arrest of a container within a container, other courts have found such searches and subsequent seizures of evidence to be constitutionally permissible. In United States v. Kralik, 611 F.2d 343 (10th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 953, 100 S.Ct. 1603, 63 L.Ed.2d 788 (1980), the police discovered an unlocked suitcase containing a sawed off shotgun in the trunk of a car while executing a valid search warrant for that car. The suitcase belonged to Kralik who asserted that absent a second search warrant, the police could not lawfully search the suitcase. Id. at 344. The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed the trial court's denial of Kralik's motion to suppress the evidence obtained from the suitcase holding that the Fourth Amendment does not require a second or subsequent warrant to search a container within a container (here, a suitcase within the trunk of an automobile). Id. at 345. In reaching this conclusion, the court stated: Any other result is inconsistent with practicality. Many containers can be placed one within the other. Theory should not be entirely divorced from practicality. Id. at 345. See United States v. Buckhanan, 905 F.Supp. 654, 661-62 (D.Neb.1995)(denying defendant's motion to suppress evidence of crack cocaine found inside of a cigarette case located within defendant's purse which was searched subsequent to a lawful warrantless arrest). In State v. Caraher, 293 Or. 741, 653 P.2d 942 (1982), the Supreme Court of Oregon considered whether the police officer's search of the defendant's purse and wallet contained therein was properly classified as a search incident to arrest. In so doing, the Oregon court applied its own more stringent constitutional standards to uphold the search of the wallet. Id. at 947. In Caraher, while transporting the defendant to a booking facility, the arresting officer opened the defendant's purse, removed the defendant's wallet and opened the coin compartment of the wallet revealing amphetamines. Id. at 943. The court upheld the search of the defendant's purse and wallet contained therein, although not for the benefit of protecting the officer nor for the purpose of preventing the destruction of evidence, because the defendant did not have access to the purse at the time of the search. Id. at 952. Rather, the court found that the search was reasonable because it was conducted close in time and space to the arrest and related directly to the arrest. Id. (citing State v. Chinn, 231 Or. 259, 373 P.2d 392 (1962)). In the case sub judice, Carter was carrying her lunch bag with her at the time of the arrest. Although Officer Cirko testified that he was not conducting an inventory search of the bag, nor was he suspicious that Carter was concealing a weapon or contraband within the lunch bag, the Supreme Court's holding in Gustafson, supra, has rendered obsolete the need for the officer to express a subjective fear for safety or belief of evidence concealed within the bags or belongings which the defendant has within their control at the time of their arrest. See Gustafson, 414 U.S. at 266, 94 S.Ct. at 492, 38 L.Ed.2d at 461; see also New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 462-63, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 2865, 69 L.Ed.2d 768, 776 (1981)(holding that a warrantless search of the arrestee's jacket which was within the arrestee's immediate control inside the passenger compartment of the car just prior to his arrest was a valid search incident to a lawful custodial arrest). Rather, as the Gustafson Court found, the arresting officer is entitled to make a full search of the defendant's person incident to the lawful arrest. See Gustafson, 414 U.S. at 266, 94 S.Ct. at 492, 38 L.Ed.2d at 461-62. Carter also gave Officer Cirko permission to search her lunch bag. Thus, under the facts and circumstances of this case, Officer Cirko conducted a reasonable warrantless search incident to arrest of Carter's lunch bag and pack of cigarettes.