Opinion ID: 1273675
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the validity of the search and seizure

Text: We start from the proposition that evidence obtained by means of an unconstitutional search and seizure [2] is inadmissible in a criminal prosecution, and that a conviction obtained thereby must be reversed. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961); State v. Pokini, 45 Haw. 295, 367 P.2d 499 (1961). The touchstone in determining whether a search pursuant to a warrant was constitutionally infirm from its inception is an analysis of the facts, usually in the form of an affidavit, presented to the issuing judge by the officials seeking the warrant. If those facts, viewed exclusively and in their totality, are substantial enough to engender the amorphous state of mind known as probable cause, [3] then the warrant, and hence the search, are at least prima facie constitutional. See Forkosh, The Constitutional Right to Challenge the Content of Affidavits in Warrants Issued under the Fourth Amendment, 34 Ohio State L.J. 297 (1973). Though the subjective mental state of probable cause is inherently incapable of precise and mathematical definition, we are not without guidelines in determining when, under particular circumstances, the constitutionally accepted minimums of probable cause have been established. Where, as in this case, a search warrant is premised solely on representations in an affidavit by a police officer that he has received information from an unnamed informer that contraband is being secreted in a particular location, that warrant is not rendered invalid by the fact alone that the information is hearsay. See, e.g., Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 269-271, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960). However, under the constitutionally mandated test of Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 114, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 1514, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964), the affidavit must set out some of the underlying circumstances from which the informant concluded that the narcotics were where he claimed they were, and some of the underlying circumstances from which the officer concluded that the informant, whose identity need not be disclosed .. . was credible or his information reliable. (emphasis added) [citations omitted]. In Aguilar, the affidavit indicated neither the source of the informer's conclusions nor the basis of the affiant's trust in the informer's credibility, and hence the Court held the search warrant inadequate. Subsequent decisions refined this two-pronged test of Aguilar in the contexts of particular factual situations. Thus, in McCray v. Illinois, 386 U.S. 300, 87 S.Ct. 1056, 18 L.Ed.2d 62 (1967), the Court held that affirmations by a confidential informer to a police officer that he had personally observed the defendant selling drugs coupled with the fact that the informer had provided the officer with reliable information at least fifteen times in the past satisfied the Aguilar test and justified a warrantless arrest and incident search of the defendant. [4] Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969), established that when an informer's tip is a necessary element of probable cause in a search warrant, its adequacy must turn on whether the tip alone passes the Aguilar test. Thus, the observation by the police in Spinelli of at best vaguely suspicious behavior by the defendant did not serve to remedy the fundamental deficiencies of the affidavit with respect to the informer's tip  it remained as conclusory as the affidavit in Aguilar both as to the basis of the informer's conclusions and the reasons for crediting them. The Court noted in dictum, however, that an allegation in the affidavit that the informer had personally observed the defendant's criminal behavior would have satisfied the underlying circumstances prong of the Aguilar test. Id. at 416, 89 S.Ct. 584. Finally, United States v. Harris, 403 U.S. 573, 91 S.Ct. 2075, 29 L.Ed.2d 723 (1971), held that an affidavit setting forth the personal knowledge of an informer with respect to illegal activities upon which a warrant was based met the underlying circumstances prong of the Aguilar test. The facts of the present case, when perceived in the context of the foregoing cases and also the opinion of this court in State v. Texeira, 50 Haw. 138, 433 P.2d 593 (1967), present little novelty. The warrant to search the defendant's house rested entirely on the following assertions contained in an affidavit prepared by officer Sidney Hayakawa: That your affiant, on December 7, 1971, at 10:00 p.m., Tuesday, received information from a reliable confidential informant, who related that David HUDDLESTON and Guy CONTEMPLO is [ sic ] selling Marihuana from within the residence located at 3274-A Lower Road; that within the past forty-eight (48) hours, the informant personally observed Marihuana being sold and used from the said premises and informant further states that Marihuana is presently being secreted within the said premises at 3274-A Lower Road; That your affiant believes and knows that the said informer is reliable; that this belief and knowledge is based on affiant's past experience with the said informer; that the affiant has received information from the said informer approximately twenty-one (21) times; That the affiant personally verified the information given him by the said informer approximately eleven (11) times, and each time the information has proved to be reliable; that based on the information received from said informer in the past, and verified, approximately seven (7) arrests for Narcotic violations are still pending court action in the State Courts. Under the first, or underlying circumstances, prong of the Aguilar test, the affidavit clearly passes constitutional muster since it relates that the basis of the informer's conclusion that illicit drug activity was being conducted at the specified location was his personal observations thereof. See United States v. Harris, supra ; McCray v. Illinois, supra . The affidavit was indeed ampler in this regard than the informer's phone call in State v. Texeira, supra , which asserted merely that the defendant was in the possession of drugs, without specifying how the informer acquired his information. While we upheld the validity of an arrest without warrant which was based on that telephone call, we were also careful to point out that the police verified many of the details of the informer's tip before acting on it. Compare Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 79 S.Ct. 329, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959). Although the officer in this case, unlike the police in Texeira, did not attempt to verify the accuracy of the information beyond checking to see whether the house the informer described existed, neither Harris nor McCray requires such verification if the tip derives from the informer's personal observations and if there exist other grounds to support the informer's veracity. Grounds to credit the informer's tip in this case, in satisfaction of the second prong of the Aguilar test, can be found in the affidavit's assertion that the informer had provided officer Hayakawa with accurate information in the past on at least eleven occasions. Looking at the statements in the affidavit as a whole, it is apparent that officer Hayakawa judged the informer's previous accuracy in terms of the number of arrests his information led to. However, if the past accuracy of an informer could be demonstrated only by the number of convictions to which his information leads, in theory no informer could ever be proven reliable on this ground. The first conviction and, in turn, all subsequent convictions resulting from his tips would be subject to attack on the ground that all evidence stemming therefrom was illegally seized, since the informer's reliability could not have been shown by past information leading to mere arrests. The circularity and hence the absurdity of this reasoning is apparent. We avoid the problem by holding that information which leads to arrests and prosecutions, as did the past information provided by the informer in this case, is reliable in the common sense meaning of that word. It is, after all, a common sense and practical interpretation of the facts, not hypertechnical and legally precise analysis, that lies at the heart of probable cause. See State v. Texeira, supra 50 Haw. at 142-143, 433 P.2d at 597, citing Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 176, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949). The affidavit in this case further states that officer Hayakawa personally verified only eleven of the approximately twenty-one leads provided by the informer. While this record arguably shows that the informer was somewhat more than half right in the past (and hence somewhat less than half wrong), it also may be read to indicate only that officer Hayakawa personally verified the informer's tips eleven times, without necessarily implying that the remaining ten tips proved fruitless. [5] We accept the proposition that [a] policeman's affidavit `should not be judged as an entry in an essay contest,' Spinelli [v. United States,] supra 393 U.S. at 438, 89 S.Ct. 584 (Fortas, J., dissenting), but rather, must be judged by the facts it contains. United States v. Harris, supra 403 U.S. at 579, 91 S.Ct. at 2080. Though the affidavit was somewhat clumsy in its presentation of the informer's record of past reliability, we conclude that in citing that the informer's prior tips led to the discovery of illegal drug activity on at least eleven occasions and at least seven arrests and prosecutions, the affidavit established the informer's credibility to such a degree that the district judge could properly conclude that his tip was probably accurate. See id. at 584, 91 S.Ct. at 2082 (the issue in warrant proceedings is not guilt beyond reasonable doubt but probable cause for believing the occurrence of a crime and the secreting of evidence in specific premises); McCray v. Illinois, supra 386 U.S. at 303-304, 87 S.Ct. 1056 (provision by informer of accurate information to one policeman on fifteen or sixteen occasions, and to another policeman on twenty to twenty-five occasions satisfies credibility prong of Aguilar test for probable cause); State v. Texeira, supra, 50 Haw. at 139, 433 P.2d at 595 (provision by informer of accurate information on twenty to thirty occasions satisfies credibility prong of Aguilar ). It follows from the foregoing analysis that the search warrant in this case meets relevant state and federal constitutional standards. [6] The matter of probable cause to search the defendant's residence is not entirely free from doubt as it almost never is in cases of this sort. However, we should accord considerable weight to the admittedly unbiased judgment of the district magistrate who issued the warrant in this case in order to encourage police officers, whenever possible, to present their cases for arrests or searches to impartial judicial officers before taking action. Compare United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 109, 85 S.Ct. 741, 13 L.Ed.2d 684 (1965), with State v. Texeira, supra 50 Haw. at 143-45, 433 P.2d at 597-598. While we still consider it to be unfortunate, nonetheless the informer system remains necessary for the maintenance of channels of information to the police in their fight against crime. Id. at 143, 433 P.2d at 597. We must conclude on the facts of this case that [w]hatever added protection might be obtained by requiring a stricter standard of proof [of informer reliability] at a preliminary stage would pale in light of the impairment of criminal investigation. Id. at 143-144, 433 P.2d at 598.