Opinion ID: 2181717
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Warrant Requirement

Text: At the outset, two specific points should be made. First, there is no dispute about the fact that the state failed to obtain a warrant before chemically testing the pills received from Alex. Indeed, under cross-examination by defense counsel, Lieutenant Reise plainly admitted that this subsequent chemical testing was performed without the state's first having obtained a search warrant. Second, there is no evidence in the record to support a finding that any recognized exception to the warrant requirement existed to justify the chemical testing. [7] Despite this conspicuous absence, however, the state urges on appeal that two specific exceptions to the warrant requirement should be applied here. [8] One of these two exceptions, the plain-view doctrine, we can summarily dismiss. We have previously rejected this doctrine as totally nonviable in an expansion case. The plain-view doctrine validates the warrantless seizure of evidence. State v. Eiseman, R.I., 461 A.2d at 380 (citing Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 464-66, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2037-38, 29 L.Ed.2d 564, 581-83 (1971)). It cannot be used to justify conduct that may constitute a `significant expansion' of the private search. State v. Eiseman, R.I., 461 A.2d at 381. The other warrant exception claimed by the state, harmless error, is equally without merit. A determination of whether error is harmless must turn upon whether there is a reasonable possibility that the error complained of contributed to the conviction. Before a federal constitutional error can be held harmless, we must be able to declare a belief that it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Robalewski, R.I., 418 A.2d 817, 824 (1980) (citing Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 23-24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 828, 17 L.Ed.2d 705, 710-11 (1967); State v. Lachapelle, 112 R.I. 105, 113, 308 A.2d 467, 471 (1973)). Even cursory review of the record precludes such a declaration. Unlike the situation in State v. Robalewski, R.I., 418 A.2d 817 (1980), in this case there is no direct evidence to connect defendant with the two alleged murder attempts upon his wife. In Robalewski, the most recent case in which we applied a harmless error exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement, strong eyewitness testimony of an assaulted security guard constituted sufficient direct evidence to convict the defendant without the introduction of the tainted revolver at trial. In fact, in that case, Officer Superczynski's testimony was the core of the state's case against defendant. Id. at 824. The precisely opposite situation prevails here. The state's entire case is predicated upon circumstantial evidence. These chemical tests of certain contents of the black bag formed a significant part of the state's case. Not only did the circumstantial evidence suggest that defendant had injected his wife with insulin by means of a hypodermic needle, but it also implied that defendant may have anesthetized her prior to such an injection. The importance of these chemical tests is demonstrated by the fact that the state explicitly relied upon the results of these tests to prove its theory of the case. A clear illustration of this reliance can be found in an excerpt from the prosecutor's own remarks made during closing argument:    [O]ne of the capsules which was found inside the Dalmane bottle which is marked Secobarbital, actually contains not only Secobarbital, but Amobarbital and Cyclizine. I just don't know, for the life of me, what the significance of that is, but I just can't see if that drug belonged to Martha von Bulow, why she would take a capsule and mix in some other drugs with it. It is only consistent with the surreptitious or the secreted administration of drugs on the part of another person. It would have been very easy, ladies and gentlemen, for Claus von Bulow to anesthetize his wife, to drug his wife at any point in time, and especially prior to  just prior to giving her the injection on each of these occasions, December 27th of 1979 and December 21st  excuse me, December 26th of 1979 and December 20th of 1980. On both of those evenings, there's testimony that she came home from the movies on the second occasion and went into the bathroom. He was in the study. She had a headache. Very simple. `Can I get you a glass of water, Dear?' It would have been so easy for him to put some of that powder Amobarbital found in his pocket or in the desk    the powder Amobarbital and the little French Valium, spike it a little bit. Very easy for him to do that. Consequently, the presence of the tranquilizing and anesthetic drugs in the black bag and their positive identification by the state toxicologist [9] firmly tightened the web of circumstantial evidence around which the state had woven its case against defendant. At a minimum, the admission by the trial justice of the results of the tests performed by the state toxicologist created a reasonable possibility that defendant would be convicted. Id. [10]