Court Opinion

ID: 9884337
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:53:34.190121+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:37.776400
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Sci-iaefer, dissenting: In People v. Mack, 12 Ill.2d 151, and Roviaro v. United States, 353 U.S. 53, the identity of the informer was sought to enable the defendant to adduce testimony bearing on the issue of guilt or innocence. In both cases the question considered was whether the defendant was deprived of a fair trial by the denial of a demand for disclosure of the informer’s identity so that he could be called upon to testify at the trial on the merits of the criminal charge. In Roviaro, the claim was sustained, while in Mack it was rejected. I agree that the informer here, like the informer in Mack, was not so involved in the commission of the offense that his availability to testify was essential to fundamental fairness. But that is not the issue in this case. Neither Roviaro nor Mack involved the question here presented: whether probable cause for an arrest without a warrant, and an incidental search, is established by a policeman’s testimony that he received a tip from an unnamed and unidentified informer when the defendant’s demand for disclosure is denied. In Roviaro there was no search; the defendant was observed by the police officers in the act of delivering narcotics and was arrested at his home some time later. In Mack, no attack on the legality of the arrest or search was made in this court. There the officers had obtained a search warrant; here no warrant for search or arrest was issued. There the informer had appeared before two judges who examined his sworn complaint and questioned him orally. Here the policeman testified that he alone received the information. The fact is that neither the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Roviaro v. United States, 353 U.S. 53, nor our decision in People v. Mack, 12 Ill.2d 151, has any bearing on the question of the validity of the arrest and search now before us. As the majority opinion observes, a search without a warrant is lawful if it is incident to a lawful arrest. But an arrest is not validated by the results of the subsequent search. Reasonable grounds must exist before the arrest is made. (People v. Thomas, 25 Ill.2d 559; People v. Parren, 24 Ill.2d 572; Henry v. United States, 361 U.S. 98.) We have held that a tip from a source unknown to the police officer is not sufficient, standing alone and without corroborative support, to sustain an arrest and an incidental search without a warrant. (People v. Pitts, 26 Ill.2d 395, 186 N.E.2d 357; People v. Parren, 24 Ill.2d 572.) But if the reliability of the informer has been established through past experience, or is now confirmed by conduct observed by the officers, or if the identity of the informer otherwise justifies the conclusion that reliance on the information supplied was reasonable, the arrest is valid. People v. Parren, 24 Ill.2d 572; People v. LaBostrie, 14 Ill.2d 617; Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307. The majority opinion takes no issue with these principles nor does it question the authority that supports them. In their application, the question before us narrows to the single issue of the reliability of the unnamed and unidentified informer. No other support for the arrest is offered. The only information that tended to cast suspicion on the defendant was that supplied by the informer to officer Webster. There is no independent corroboration of the informer’s reliability in the activities of the defendant’s companion, as there was in People v. Tillman, 1 Ill.2d 525, since here the companion was not involved. The officer’s acquaintance with the defendant furnished no grounds for suspicion since he had never known the defendant to be engaged in the narcotics traffic. He observed no suspicious conduct. The whole of the evidence pertaining to the reliability of this informer is contained in the answers to three questions asked by the prosecutor on the motion to suppress: “Q. * * * Now, Officer Webster, on February 22, 1961, did you have an occasion to have a conversation with an individual whom you knew as an informer ? A. Yes, I did. Q. Had you ever had a conversation with that individual previous to this date? A. Yes, I did. Q. Had this general information furnished to you in a prior conversation proved to be reliable? A. Yes.” It may be open to doubt whether the fact that “general information” of an unspecified nature on an unspecified prior occasion had proved to be reliable supplies the sort of foundation on which a “prudent man would reasonably believe in the guilt of a person.” (People v. Pitts, (No. 36975) 26 Ill.2d 395, 186 N.E.2d 357, 359.) But even if the testimony of the policeman, standing alone, might have supported a finding that the informer was reliable, it was deprived of probative force by the fact that the defendant, on cross-examination of officer Webster, twice asked and was twice denied the name and identity of the informer. The defendant’s right to test the reasonableness of the officer’s conduct, and to impeach his testimony as to the reliability of the informer, was thereby frustrated. “To give vitality to the requirement of reliability the law requires, if no probable cause exists without the information from the informer, that his identity be divulged, so that his reliability may be subjected to meaningful judicial scrutiny rather than accepted on a policeman’s word.” Jones v. United States, (D.C. cir.) (1959) 266 F.2d 924, 929. Here the defendant’s conviction stands or falls on the determination whether there was reasonable ground for his arrest. That determination turns upon the existence and the reliability of the informer. There was no independent corroboration, and without knowledge of the identity of the informer the defense can not effectively contest the policeman’s opinion as to his reliability. Rational appraisal by the court is foreclosed, and the policeman himself conclusively determines the validity of his own arrest. The reason underlying this rule was thus explained by Mr. Justice Traynor in Priestly v. Superior Court, 50 Cal.2d 812, 818, 330 P.2d 39, 43 (1958) : “If an officer were allowed to establish unimpeachably the lawfulness of a search merely by testifying that he received justifying information from a reliable person whose identity cannot be revealed, he would become the sole judge of what is probable cause to make the search. Such a holding would destro}'- the exclusionary rule. Only by requiring disclosure and giving the defendant an opportunity to present contrary or impeaching evidence as to the truth of the officer’s testimony and the reasonableness of his reliance on the informer can the court make a fair determination of the issue.” The answer to what the opinion of the court characterizes as the basic question here, — “whether the right of the individual to protection against the harrassment of unreasonable searches and false arrests is superior to the necessity of protecting the public against the evils of organized crime,” — was given long ago. It is clearly stated in the provisions of the constitutions of the United States and of this State which prohibit unreasonable search and seizure. Those provisions charge the courts with the responsibility of enforcing limitations upon arrest and upon the introduction of illegally seized evidence. The courts can not discharge that responsibility unless they can look behind the policeman’s assertion. I would therefore reverse the judgment and remand the cause for a new trial, in accordance with the weight of persuasive authority. Scher v. United States, 305 U.S. 251; Wilson v. United States (3rd cir.) 59 F.2d 390 (1932); United States v. Blich, 45 F.2d 627 (D. Wyo. 1930) ; United States v. Keown, 19 F. Supp. 639 (W.D. Ky. 1937) ; Smith v. State, 169 Tenn. 633, 90 S.W.2d 523. Klingbiel, C.J., and Hershey, J., concur in this dissenting opinion.