Opinion ID: 1927376
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: challenge to the search and seizure

Text: Rule 2007 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure, Pa. R.Crim.P.2007, sets forth the manner in which the police may enter premises to execute a search warrant: Rule 2007. MANNER OF ENTRY INTO PREMISES (a) A law enforcement officer executing a search warrant shall, before entry, give, or make reasonable effort to give notice of his identity, authority and purpose to any occupant of the premises specified in the warrant, unless exigent circumstances require his immediate forcible entry. (b) Such officer shall await a response for a reasonable period of time after his announcement of identity, authority, and purpose, unless exigent circumstances require his immediate forcible entry. (c) If the officer is not admitted after such reasonable period, he may forcibly enter the premises and may use as much physical force to effect entry therein as is necessary to execute the search. Thus, unless there are exigent circumstances, Rule 2007 requires that police officers executing a search warrant should make a reasonable effort to knock and announce their identity and purpose and then wait a reasonable amount of time for the occupants to respond before entering private premises. The primary purpose of the knock and announce rule is to prevent resistance to lawful authority based on the occupant's efforts to protect his privacy expectation against unauthorized entry of persons unknown to him. Commonwealth v. McDonnell, 512 Pa. 172, 516 A.2d 329 (1986). In addition, the knock and announce rule prevents violence and physical injury to the police and the occupants and protects an occupant's privacy expectation against unauthorized entry of unknown persons, and prevents property damage resulting from forced entry during the execution of a search warrant. Commonwealth v. Crompton, 545 Pa. 586, 682 A.2d 286 (1996). In the present case, the police announced their identity, but did not announce their purpose when executing the search warrant. We have recognized four exceptions to the requirements of the knock and announce rule: 1. the occupants remain silent after repeated knocking and announcing; 2. the police are virtually certain that the occupants of the premises already know their purpose; 3. the police have reason to believe that an announcement prior to entry would imperil their safety; and 4. the police have reason to believe that evidence is about to be destroyed. Commonwealth v. Means, 531 Pa. 504, 508, 614 A.2d 220 (1992). If the Commonwealth establishes any of these exigencies, the police may force entry without knocking, announcing their identity and purpose, or waiting for the occupant to respond. Means. At the motion to suppress, the Commonwealth argues the presence of exigent circumstances as follows: My other argument, I indicated there were two, your honor, would be at the point that you don't have any response from inside and you know that one of your two suspects that has sold drugs prior, two days prior including that day, is already walking down the street, at that time, your honor. I would argue that exigent circumstances do exist to break in the door at that point. Because at that point, your honor, they know they've got one and all he's got is money on him, they know that drugs have been sold from inside that location on that day very day, hours before  actually, I don't think it's hours before, minutes before, excuse me, I stand corrected, minutes before, just five minutes before, and at that point, your honor, where there's no response the logical thing to think is, great we're going to stand out here and the person inside is flushing the drugs down the toilet, or in some way destroying them. So I would argue that at that point they do have exigent circumstances to go in and I would ask you to deny the motion. N.T. 9/30/92, 62-63. The Commonwealth's position, in sum, is that because drugs were sold from within the house five minutes before the execution of the warrant, and because one of the two suspects was in custody outside of the house and he did not have drugs on his person, and there was no response to police announcing their identity, whoever remained in the house was destroying evidence. The Commonwealth's claim of exigent circumstances is flawed. That drugs were sold minutes before suggests nothing except that drugs are probably still on the premises. Donald's arrest without drugs also suggests only that drugs remain on the premises. And that police received no response to their announcement of their identity is not surprising, for there is no requirement that anyone open the door to their dwelling in the absence of police statement of their authority and purpose. In a free society, the mere presence of police does not require an individual to throw open the doors to his house and cower submissively before the uniformed authority of the state. As this court stated in Commonwealth v. McDonnell, 512 Pa. 172, 176-77, 516 A.2d 329, 330-31 (1986): The knock and announce rule's origins pre-date the United States Constitution. It was born in English Common Law and was subsequently adopted in America. In recent times, the knock and announce rule has assumed a Constitutional dimension. Both our Court and United States Supreme Court have held that the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures applies to the manner of a warrant's execution. Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 10 L.Ed.2d 726 (1963); Commonwealth v. Newman, 429 Pa. 441, 240 A.2d 795 (1968). Even a valid warrant may not be executed in an unreasonable manner; unreasonableness is determined on a case-by-case basis. Id. The rule's primary purpose is to prevent resistance to lawful authority based on the occupant's efforts to protect his privacy expectation against unauthorized entry of persons unknown to him. In Commonwealth v. Newman , we specifically stated: [W]e hold that the forcible entry without announcement of purpose violates the Fourth Amendment. 429 Pa. 441, 449, 240 A.2d 795, 799 (1968). Newman 's categorical statement of its holding notwithstanding, the knock and announce requirement is a rule of reason. There is a presumption that the police will be required to knock and announce their identity, their purpose and their authority, but this requirement will be relaxed in the presence of exigent circumstances. Accordingly, we now hold that in the absence of exigent circumstances, forcible entry without announcement of purpose violates Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. [4] In this case, there were no exigent circumstances. Police, therefore, were required to knock and announce their identity, purpose, and authority. If police had identified themselves and stated their authority and purpose, the absence of a response within a reasonable time would have justified a forced entry. In the absence of a statement of authority and purpose, however, it was reasonable and within their constitutional rights that the occupants did not respond. Police may not now bootstrap themselves into exigent circumstances by claiming that the reasonable failure to respond, which they themselves may have caused, was justification for forced entry. The Superior Court adopted the trial court's conclusion that there were exigent circumstances by citing the trial court's opinion as follows: [T]he police had just made an arrest for the sale of drugs immediately outside the house. The person arrested, Donald Carlton, was the brother of the person who had sold drugs to the police on the 28th of January. Although they did not know this particular fact at the time, the police had personal knowledge that at least two persons were engaged in selling drugs from the house. The police could reasonably believe that the other person who had sold drugs from the house, Joseph Carlton, would conclude that his brother had been arrested when he did not return from the drug sale and would destroy the drugs that were in the house. Such a situation falls within the exigent circumstances exception to the strict enforcement of the knock and announce rule. Slip Op. at 5-6. The lower courts' attempt to justify the battering down of the door are also unavailing. The courts' rationale was, in essence that the suspect remaining in the house would destroy evidence when his co-conspirator did not return from the drug sale. There are at least two infirmities in this rationale. The first is that there is no evidence that Donald was about to engage in a drug transaction when he was arrested. In fact, the evidence was that when he was arrested, he had no drugs on his person. [5] The second infirmity is that even if Donald had been on his way to a drug sale, the lapse of time between his arrest and the execution of the warrant was so short that Joseph would have had no reason to be alarmed by Donald's absence. [6] In sum, there were no exigent circumstances and it was error to fail to suppress the evidence seized as a result of the search of the house. Because we have determined that both Donald and Joseph Carlton had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the residence at 3229 Fontain Street, the evidence seized should have been suppressed as to both defendants. However, the evidence of the drug sales to police from the residence at 3229 Fontain Street remains in the case and the convictions of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and criminal conspiracy shall remain undisturbed. The convictions and the judgments of sentence as to possession of drug paraphernalia are vacated as to both Donald and Joseph Carlton. The Superior Court's order affirming the judgments of sentence is vacated and the convictions and judgments of sentence are modified as indicated above.