Court Opinion

ID: 9582215
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:23:56.804382+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:33.564647
License: Public Domain

Smith, Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent to Division 1 of the majority opinion. The motion to suppress should have been granted.
Appellants, Goodwin, et al. (hereinafter referred to as Goodwin) appeal the denial of their motion to suppress contraband seized by law enforcement officers. Goodwin enumerates as error the trial court’s admission of testimony relating to an electronically intercepted communication involving Goodwin and a decoy without a proper foundation having been laid. In support of this contention, Goodwin contends that the state: (a), failed to prove the decoy’s consent to wearing a transmitter as required by Code Ann. § 26-3006; and, (b) denied him his Sixth Amendment right of *52confrontation with the decoy.
Goodwin met with and sold some marijuana to an individual who turned out to be a decoy.1 The decoy, unknown to Goodwin, was wearing a transmitting device (hereinafter referred to as a bug, body bug or bugging device). Goodwin’s arrest was based upon the bugged conversation between Goodwin and the decoy. A police officer, Atlanta Detective Larry W. Sproat, was manning the receiving device and was the only one listening to the bugged conversation. He was allowed by the court to testify as to what he heard from the bugging device. There was no recording of the conversation. The only evidence of consent, as required under Code Ann. § 26-3006, was the testimony of Sproat and Detective Louis Archangeles, Atlanta Police Department. Sproat testified that the decoy cooperated and understood what he was doing. Archangeles testified that the decoy stated he had no "aversion” to wearing the body bug. Neither of them stated unequivocally that the decoy consented to its use. Neither of the witnesses placed the bug upon the decoy. Although Sproat was present when another person placed the bug upon the decoy, Archangeles was not. Archangeles and the decoy were riding together from Atlanta to Clayton County when the decoy allegedly stated he had no aversion to wearing the bug.
Goodwin’s attorneys tried to talk to the officers involved in the case and the officers refused. The attorneys for Goodwin made an effort to find out the name of the decoy but to no avail. Neither at the suppression hearing nor at the trial of the case did the state have the decoy present as a witness. The state made no effort to explain why the decoy was not present as a witness nor why they would not reveal his name to Goodwin.
Code § 26-3001 provides: "It shall be unlawful for: a) any person in a clandestine manner to intentionally overhear, transmit, or record or attempt to overhear, transmit or record the private conversation of another which shall originate in any private place ...” Code § 26-3006 provides a statutory exception to § 26-3001, "in those instances wherein the message shall be initiated or instigated by a person and the message shall constitute the commission of a crime or is directly in the furtherance of a crime, provided at least one party thereto shall consent” (Emphasis *53supplied.) "No evidence obtained in a manner which violates any of the provisions of this chapter shall be admissible in any court of the state except to prove violations of . . . Chapter [26-30].” Code § 26-3007.
Goodwin’s entire defense is based upon whether or not the decoy consented to the use of a bug. Goodwin contends that there is insufficient proof of consent. What amounts to proof of consent under this Code section has never been defined by our courts. Black’s Law Dictionary defines "consent” as follows: "A concurrence of wills. Voluntarily yielding the will to the proposition of another; acquiescence ... It is an act unclouded by fraud, duress, or sometimes even mistake . . . There is a difference between consenting and submitting. Every consent involves submission; but a mere submission does not necessarily involve consent... As used in the law of rape 'consent’ means consent of the will, and submission under the influence of fear or terror cannot amount to real consent.. . [T]here must be a choice between resistence and assent ...” (Emphasis supplied.)
Although the state’s witnesses testified that the decoy "knew what was happening,” "had no aversion” to wearing the bug, and "cooperated” with the police, the record contains no affirmative evidence of actual consent on the part of the decoy. Without such evidence, the testimony relating to the bugged conversations was inadmissible.
The very fact that the state would not provide Goodwin with the decoy’s identity indicates that the state had something to hide. The state did not claim that divulging the decoy’s identity would jeopardize any police undercover investigations. The state’s conduct in this case has resulted in a denial of appellant’s right to confront the witnesses against him. See Crosby v. State, 90 Ga. App. 63, 65 (82 SE2d 38) (1954).
Inasmuch as this is a case of first impression in Georgia, the law of other jurisdictions may provide some guidance. The Florida Constitution of 1968 in Art. 1, Sec. 12 provides, inter alia, that "the right of the people . . . against the unreasonable interception of private communications by any means, shall not be violated.” The Florida statute relating to the "consent exception” is similar to Code § 26-3006: the communication may be intercepted provided one of the parties consents. The Supreme Court of Florida, in Tollett v. State, Fla. 272 S2d 490 (1973), held that it was unreasonable to allow recordings to be played before the jury where the consenting one to the recording was not in court and available for cross examination. See also Koran v. State, 213 S2d 735 (1968), (Fla. *54App. 3rd Dist). Under Tollett, consent must be shown by the testimony of the one wearing the bug. Necessarily, this individual must be present in court for cross examination. "If the procedure adopted by the State in this case were approved it would be precedent that the State may bypass a magistrate in the matter of probable cause; that at trial the state may introduce an unwarranted intercepted communication without the presence of the alleged participating informant as a material witness to testify as to his consent to the interception ... It eliminates an accused’s opportunity to cross-examine the alleged informant. . . Generally, it furthers the invasion of privacy by the police, encourages wiretapping, entrapment and manufactured evidence.” Tollett, supra, at p. 495.
The state’s failure to reveal the decoy’s identity effectively destroyed Goodwin’s ability to establish that the decoy had not consented to wearing the bugging device. Since the admissibility of the evidence obtained by the state through the bugging device (which formed the basis of the state’s case) is conditioned upon the consent of the decoy, the state’s refusal to reveal the decoy’s identity denied Goodwin access to testimony that could be essential to his defense. See Roviaro v. United States, 353 U. S. 53 (77 SC 623, 1 LE2d 639) (1957); Crosby v. State, supra; ABA Project on Minimum Standards for Criminal Justice, Standards Relating to Electronic Surveillance (Approved Draft, 1971); 2 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 188 (1974).
Perhaps in our zeal to convict the guilty we overlook the fact that we are also making the law that will be applied to the innocent. In this case, the state could have easily complied with Goodwin’s request for the decoy’s identity. Was this too much for the state to do under the facts of this case? Can the court place its stamp of approval on the state’s refusal to comply with Goodwin’s request? I believe not.
I am authorized to state that Judge Shulman and Judge Carley join in this dissent.

Under Georgia law, the individual was a decoy because he was the purchaser for the police in a sale of contraband. Wilson v. Hopper, 234 Ga. 859 (218 SE2d 573) (1975).