Opinion ID: 880626
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the search warrant was issued upon probable cause?

Text: Garberding maintains that the magistrate must determine the existence of probable cause solely from the evidence in the four corners of the search warrant application. He contends that the only facts on the application for a search warrant were (1) that he had a 1983 conviction relating to marijuana; (2) a deputy sheriff had smelled marijuana at Garberding's residence; and (3) undisclosed, unverified and anonymous informants stated he had a grow operation in his home. He urges that these facts failed to establish the probability of criminal activity. He argues that where no information of an informant's veracity or reliability is provided, and the remaining facts in totality do not otherwise provide a basis to conclude probable cause exists, the warrant fails. The State maintains that the probable cause requirement need not equate with a prima facie showing of criminal activity, but rather the warrant application need only contain facts sufficient to indicate a probability that incriminating items, namely items reasonably believed to be connected with criminal activity, are located on the property to which entry is sought. The State urges that the test is not whether any individual fact, standing alone, is sufficient to justify issuance of a warrant, but rather that the facts presented in the search warrant application, when considered as a whole, must meet the totality of the circumstances test. The State relies on United States v. Harris (1971), 403 U.S. 573, 581, 583, 91 S.Ct. 2075, 2080, 2081, 29 L.Ed.2d 723, for the proposition that prior criminal activity of a similar nature, even if unverified, enhances an informant's tip that a person is presently engaged in criminal conduct. Thus, the State argues that under the totality of the circumstances test, Justice of the Peace Beitz was entitled to consider the information presented in the search warrant application as a whole, including past offenses, when assessing probable cause. In United States v. Harris , the United States Supreme Court stated: Corroboration through other sources of information reduced the chances of a reckless or prevaricating tale; that petitioner was a known user of narcotics made the charge against him much less subject to scepticism than would be such a charge against one without such a history... . Trials are necessarily surrounded with evidentiary rules developed to safeguard men from dubious and unjust convictions. But before the trial we deal only with probabilities that are not technical; they are the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act. We cannot conclude that a policeman's knowledge of a suspect's reputation  something that policemen frequently know and a factor that impressed such a legal technician as Mr. Justice Frankfurter  is not a practical consideration of everyday life upon which an officer (or a magistrate) may properly rely in assessing the reliability of an informant's tip. United States v. Harris, 403 U.S. at 581-583, 91 S.Ct. at 2080-82. The Supreme Court also makes it clear that the issue in warrant proceedings is not guilt beyond a reasonable doubt but probable cause for believing the occurrence of a crime and the secreting of evidence in specific premises. The degree of consistent detail provided by the three informants not only added to the totality of the circumstances to establish probable cause, but also substantiated their reliability. Here, the application showed that Garberding had a previous conviction of marijuana distribution and that there was a fair probability he was still so engaged. We hold that the search warrant was issued upon probable cause.