Opinion ID: 1640492
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: valid search and seizure

Text: There is no reason to hold that the mere passage of time makes a subsequent entry unreasonable, but rather the total circumstances must be carefully considered in balancing the defendant's expectation of privacy against the state's interest in investigating and solving a major crime. In United States v. Knotts, 460 U.S. 276, 280-81 (1983), the United States Supreme Court in quoting Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 740 (1979), stated the relevant fourth amendment analysis: `[T]his Court uniformly has held that the application of the Fourth Amendment depends on whether a person invoking its protection can claim a justifiable, a reasonable, or a legitimate expectation of privacy that has been invaded by government action. [Citations omitted.] This inquiry, as Mr. Justice Harlan aptly noted in his Katz concurrence, normally embraces two discrete questions. The first is whether the individual, by his conduct, has exhibited an actual (subjective) expectation of privacy, 389 U.S., at 361whether, in the words of the Katz majority, the individual has shown that he seeks to preserve [something] as private. Id., at 351. The second question is whether the individual's subjective expectation of privacy is one that society is prepared to recognize as `reasonable.' id., at 361 whether, in the words of the Katz majority, the individual's expectation, viewed objectively, is justifiable under the circumstances.' (Footnote omitted.) Under the facts of this case, Douglas did not exhibit an actual (subjective) expectation of privacy, nor did he seek to preserve something as private. More importantly, for the sake of argument, even if Douglas did exhibit an actual (subjective) expectation of privacy, it was not one which society is prepared to recognize as reasonable. That subjective expectation was not one that viewed objectively is justifiable under the circumstances of this case concluding in the November 9 reconstruction of his admitted crimes. The defendant's statements and conduct on the night of November 7 clearly forfeited his expectation of privacy in his home. This allowed police to conduct a reasonable search of the premises and would have allowed the seizure of the note if it had been discovered that night. The majority never explains when or how the defendant's expectation of privacy which he surrendered to the police on November 7 was reinstated or reasserted. He admitted murdering three of the other residents of the house, his mother and two sisters, so he had eliminated their expectation of a right of privacy. The record is silent as to whether the defendant's father, Richard Douglas, who arrived on the scene just prior to the defendant's surrender, wanted to enter the house or did in fact enter the house. The father conversed with Captain Abel in the street prior to the defendant's arrest and the record does not show whether he voiced any objection to the initial entry and search of his home nor when he eventually, if ever, returned to the home. The house at all times remained under the control and supervision of the Reedsburg Police Department. More importantly, Captain Abel testified no person was allowed access to the Douglas home after guards were posted. The majority holds the passage of time vitiated the initial consent and that the interruption in investigative activities between 8:00 p.m. on November 8 until 6:30 p.m. on November 9 made the initial investigation and the subsequent investigation and reconstruction of the scene factually and analytically separable. (Pages 12, 24.) It is important to note that the killings took place in the city of Reedsburg, county of Sauk, which had populations of 5,038 and 43,469 residents, respectively, at the time of the last census. [1] It can be assumed that the police and sheriff's department for a county and especially a city of that size are limited and teams of specialists to be assigned for multiple killing cases, in this case a triple homicide, as might be available in large, populated urban areas simply do not exist. Captain Abel of the Reedsburg Police Department co-ordinated the city police department's investigation and Detective Niles the sheriff's department's. Detective Niles interviewed the defendant shortly after he was taken into custody while Captain Abel remained at the scene of the crime. It was in that interview that the defendant stated the evening's events started in his bedroom while he was doing homework and that he thought about death and killing people. He told Detective Niles he went from his bedroom to the basement and then to where he had his deer hunting rifle. The interview lasted until 11:02 p.m. on November 7. Captain Abel still remained on the scene. It is reasonable that the statement had to be transcribed for accuracy and only then was Captain Abel privy to its contents. It is reasonable to infer based on Captain Abel's testimony that the earliest he would have been able to be privy to its contents would have been the morning of November 9. Moreover, it was reasonable that after hearing Douglas's statement Captain Abel and Detective Stammen in going to the house to reconstruct the crime would have started in the defendant's bedroom where the slip of paper was found in plain view on the floor and lying in an open area of the bedroom. (Page 16.) Captain Abel stated he remained on the scene on November 7 until approximately 3:30 a.m. and returned to accompany the bodies to Madison at approximately 6:30 a.m. Captain Abel then left for the state crime laboratory in Madison to accompany the evidence removed from the defendant's home and did not return home until late that day. Captain Abel on November 9 would have had to, among other things, coordinate with Detective Niles of the sheriff's department what was known in the case. It is reasonable to assume that each of the officers had other duties which had accumulated over the previous 36 hours, so that it is not wholly unreasonable that he did not go to defendant's home until 6:00 p.m. on November 9 to reconstruct the crime. The majority's opinion is suspicious of whether Captain Abel and Detective Stammen went to Douglas's house to reconstruct the crime based on their combined knowledge received through the earlier investigation and the evidence obtained or to continue a search. The record, however, indicates they went there to reconstruct the crime and that is consistent with the factual development in the case. After all, even the majority would have given the police the right to search the home on the night the bodies were recovered. Unfortunately, at that time the police did not know the defendant had thought about death and killing and had begun the tragic events of the evening in his bedroom. Reconstruction of the crime is an ordinary and recognized practice of police investigation and it is done as much to see if the defendant really committed a crime he has confessed to as it is to determine whether the facts already known raise doubts about the defendant's admissions and declarations. The privacy protected by the fourth amendment was described in Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616,630 (1886), as protection against all governmental invasions of the sanctity of a man's home and the privacies of life. This hardly describes the circumstances of the instant case of a triple killing where the defendant has never returned to the home and the police have secured the house at all times. Under the particular facts of this case, the majority places an improper burden on the state to show what prevented or made it impractical to obtain a search warrant for the November 9 entry into the house. (Pages 25 and 26.) The November 9 entry was made to reconstruct the crime, not specifically to look for known evidence. The grounds for obtaining a search warrant require the place to be searched and the thing to be seized to be described with particularity. [2] Until the officers saw the slip of paper on the bedroom floor, they did not know of its existence and, therefore, could not have described it in a search warrant application with any particularity or location. We stated in State v. Noll, 116 Wis. 2d 443, 450-51, 343 N.W.2d 391 (1984): The fourth amendment to the United States Constitution requires that a search warrant `particularly describ[e] the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.' The original purpose of the particularity requirement was to do away with the evils of the general warrant known to the colonists as the writ of assistance. These writs, which were issued on `mere suspicion,' gave customs officials blanket authority to search wherever they pleased for any goods imported in violation of British tax laws. United States v. Christine, 687 F.2d 749, 755 (3rd Cir. 1982), 1 W. LaFave, Search and Seizure sec. 1.1 (1978). Today the particularity requirement prevents the government from engaging in general exploratory rummaging through a person's papers and effects in search of anything that might prove to be incriminating. Coolidge v. New Hamsphire, 403 U.S. 443, 467 (1971); State v. Starke, 81 Wis. 2d 399, 413, 260 N.W.2d 739 (1977). In order to satisfy the particularity requirement, the warrant must enable the searcher to reasonably ascertain and identify the things which are authorized to be seized. Steele v. United States, 267 U.S. 498, 503 (1925); United States v. Cook, 657 F.2d 730, 733 (5th Cir. 1981). The use of a generic term or general description is constitutionally acceptable only when a more specific description of the items to be seized is not available. United States v. Cook, 657 F.2d at 733. [3] This could not be done in this case since the police did not seek to search the bedroom; they were not looking for any evidence and clearly they had no idea the slip of paper found on the bedroom floor ever existed. To require a search warrant on November 9 is a constitutional impossibility and to suggest the lack of effort to obtain one is not worthy of statement as a reason for finding this entry unreasonable.