Court Opinion

ID: 9810229
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 21:43:48.968356+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:39:29.748367
License: Public Domain

JDeviN, J.,
dissenting: The only evidence in the case was that of the officer, who testified as follows: “I am the officer who investigated the case of Joe McGee. I went to the dwelling house of the defendant at State Eoad, N. 0. I searched his dwelling house — where the defendant lives — Mr. McGee gave me no permission to search his premises, forbade me to search his place and objected to the search. I placed him under arrest before I searched his place and put him in a car with another officer. Nobody gave me permission to search his premises and in fact they objected to my search. He was in charge of the place and he objected to my search and told me not to search.” The officer testified the search resulted in discovering twenty gallons of whiskey. It was admitted that the officer acted without any search warrant or warrant of arrest.
To this testimony defendant duly noted exception on the ground that it was rendered incompetent by ch. 339, Public Laws 1937, which provides that “no facts discovered by reason of the issuance of such illegal search warrant shall be competent as evidence in the trial of any action.”
Prior to the enactment of this statute, unquestionably, the rule pervaded in North Carolina, as stated in the majority opinion, that evidence otherwise competent was admissible irrespective of the manner in which it was obtained by the witness, though a contrary rule obtained in other jurisdictions. 15 N. 0. Law Eeview, 343.
But the Act of 1937 changed the rule as to evidence obtained by the use of illegal search warrants, and evinces the legislative intent by necessary implication that this remedial check upon acts in violation of common right should be extended to an unlawful search without a warrant. “The heart of a statute is the intent of the lawmaking body” (Trust Co. v. Hood, 206 N. C., 268, 173 S. E., 601). Since evidence so obtained is, by the statute, made incompetent upon the ground that the complainant failed to sign the affidavit to procure the warrant, the reason applies more strongly when the officer failed not only to verify his complaint but also to procure the warrant at all. If an illegal warrant fails to justify the search and renders the evidence obtained thereby incompetent, much more so should the absence of a warrant entirely be given the same effect. To hold otherwise is to miss the intent of the statute, and the purpose of its .enactment. The manifest *188intent of the act was to discourage unlawful searches by rendering evidence thereby obtained inadmissible.
True, in this case, evidence of commission of a misdemeanor on the part of the defendant was uncovered, but to do so the officer not only committed an assault upon the person of the defendant when he arrested him without a warrant for objecting to his home being entered, but also of trespass for invading the dwelling house of the defendant without the semblance of authority and after being forbidden so to do by the defendant and other members of his family then present. Two wrongs do not make a right. It would be much better if officers engaged in the enforcement of law would themselves be careful to observe the law. Violations of law by those clothed with authority in the misdirected effort to uphold the law bring discredit upon the administration of the criminal law.
This defendant may have violated the law and be guilty of a misdemeanor, but he is still a citizen of North Carolina and entitled to have his constitutional and legal rights respected. He is no outlaw, nor fleeing felon, and the unlawful invasion of his home, even by a zealous officer, should not be made the means of procuring evidence to convict him.
Stacy, C. J., concurs in dissenting opinion.