Opinion ID: 2330526
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Maryland Cases Under the Good Faith Exception

Text: A review of our cases illustrates the anomaly of the majority decision in the instant case. In Greenstreet, 392 Md. at 652, 898 A.2d at 961, a search warrant had been issued on the basis of incriminating evidence discovered in a search of discarded trash pursuant to California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35, 37, 108 S.Ct. 1625, 1627, 100 L.Ed.2d 30, 34 (1988) (trash left for collection outside the curtilage of a home may be searched without a warrant). The listed date of the trash search was more than one year prior to the date of warrant execution, and we applied the four corners rule to hold that the warrant on its face was stale and consequently, that the evidence gathered pursuant to the warrant must be excluded. Greenstreet, 392 Md. at 661, 898 A.2d at 966. The State argued that the good faith exception should apply, in part because extrinsic evidence [8] strongly suggested that the date noted on the warrant was a typographical error, but we [did] not conclude that a reasonable, well-trained police officer executing the warrant would believe that the warrant authorized the search because the lack of probable cause [was] apparent on the face of the affidavit when the evidence giving rise to a belief in probable cause [was] a year old and [did] not indicate continuing criminal activity. Id. at 683, 898 A.2d at 979. In McDonald v. State, 347 Md. 452, 701 A.2d 675 (1997), the appellant was convicted of possession of CDS with intent to distribute, having lost a suppression hearing, at which he argued that the search warrant was defective because it was anticipatory [9] and because it was unsupported by probable cause. Id. at 456, 701 A.2d at 677. Police suspicion had been aroused when a UPS investigator discovered during a random check a package containing CDS that was addressed to the premises in question. Id. at 456-57, 701 A.2d at 677. The police subsequently filed an application for a search warrant for the address disclosed by UPS, and arranged for a controlled delivery. Id. at 457-59, 701 A.2d at 677-78. After the controlled delivery, the police executed the search warrant and discovered the appellant in possession of contraband. Id. at 460, 701 A.2d at 679. The State argued successfully that the good faith exception applied. Id. at 463, 701 A.2d at 680. In its analysis, the Court avoided the question whether the warrant itself was supported by probable cause, looking instead to the four-pronged Leon test. Id. at 469, 701 A.2d at 683. In holding that the appellant had failed to demonstrate that any of the exceptions to the exception outlined in Leon were applicable, the Court noted that: (1) the appellant never argued that the issuing judge had been misled through deliberate falsehood or reckless disregard for the truth by the warrant affiant, [10] id. at 471, 701 A.2d at 684; (2) there was nothing in the record to support the notion that the issuing judge had abandoned his impartiality, [11] id.; (3) the affidavit was not so lacking in indicia of probable cause that it was unreasonable for the officers to rely upon it . . . [because] [t]he warrant application contained several objective facts from which the officers could have reasonably concluded that there was probable cause to search the premises, id. at 472, 701 A.2d at 685; and (4) the warrant itself was not `so facially deficient i.e., in failing to particularize the place to be searched or the things to be seized  that the executing officers [could not] reasonably presume [the warrant] to be valid.' Id. at 473, 701 A.2d at 685, quoting Connelly v. State, 322 Md. 719, 729, 589 A.2d 958, 963 (1991). In Minor, 334 Md. at 707, 641 A.2d at 214, this Court examined the third Leon exception and its applicability to the suppression of CDS evidence uncovered through a search for stolen goods. The police officer had been investigating the theft of a motorcycle and had reason to believe, based on the word of a confidential informant, that the motorcycle was stored at a particular residence. Id. at 710-11, 641 A.2d at 215. When the warrant was executed, the police did not find the motorcycle, but did discover a quantity of CDS, a box of razor blades and a triple beam balance scale. Id. at 711, 641 A.2d at 215. The appellant noted an appeal after convictions were entered pursuant to a not guilty statement of facts; he challenged the denial of his suppression motion on the basis that the search warrant was unsupported by probable cause because the affidavit was silent about the informant's reliability and his basis of knowledge. [12] In upholding the convictions, this Court determined that the investigating officer had made a good faith effort to comply with the requirements of Gates, 462 U.S. at 213, 103 S.Ct. at 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d at 527, in her presentation of corroborating information in the warrant application. Minor, 334 Md. at 715-16, 641 A.2d at 217-18. In Connelly, 322 Md. at 719, 589 A.2d at 958, the petitioner had been convicted of violations of lottery and gambling laws on the basis of evidence seized during the execution of what the State later conceded was a defective search warrant. The petitioner argued unsuccessfully at his suppression hearing that the search warrant was unsupported by probable cause because it was issued nine months after the surveillance cited in the affidavit, and because the `numerous occasions' described in the affidavit were not specific as to dates. Id. at 723-24, 589 A.2d at 961. In its analysis of the issue, the Connelly Court followed Leon in confining its inquiry `to the objectively ascertainable question whether a reasonably well trained officer would have known that the search was illegal despite the magistrate's authorization.' Id. at 730, 589 A.2d at 964, quoting Leon, 468 U.S. at 922 n. 23, 104 S.Ct. at 3420 n. 23, 82 L.Ed.2d at 698 n. 23. Because the issue of staleness as construed in light of Peterson v. State, 281 Md. 309, 379 A.2d 164 (1977), could have supported either the ruling below in Connelly by the Court of Special Appeals that probable cause was stale, or that the affidavit furnished evidence of a continuing criminal enterprise and thus was legally sufficient, Connelly, 322 Md. at 734, 589 A.2d at 966, this Court held that the police could have reasonably believed that the averments of their affidavit related a present and continuing violation of law, not remote from the date of their affidavit, and that the evidence sought would likely be found at Connelly's store and at his residence. Id. at 735, 589 A.2d at 967.