Court Opinion

ID: 9483952
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:36:20.553876+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:56.052735
License: Public Domain

FAGG, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Under the independent source doctrine, a court cannot suppress evidence gathered in a warrant search following an illegal entry if the warrant was issued on information from sources unrelated to the entry and the illegal entry did not contribute to the discovery of the evidence seized under the warrant. Segura v. United States, 468 U.S. 796, 799, 814-15, 104 S.Ct. 3380, 3382, 3390-91, 82 L.Ed.2d 599 (1984). By refusing to apply the doctrine, the panel mistakenly suppresses evidence discovered and seized by the officers during their warrant-authorized search of the Martses’ home. Thus, I respectfully dissent.
I believe this case is controlled by Segura and Murray v. United States, 487 U.S. 533, 108 S.Ct. 2529, 101 L.Ed.2d 472 (1988). In Segura, federal agents illegally entered an apartment and remained until a search warrant was issued solely on information known to the agents before their illegal entry. Although the district court suppressed both evidence the agents observed before the warrant issued and evidence the agents discovered in the warrant search, the government only challenged the ruling *1221suppressing the evidence discovered in the warrant search. The Supreme Court held that evidence discovered for the first time in the warrant search following the illegal entry should not be suppressed because “the information possessed by the agents before they entered the apartment constituted an independent source for the discovery and seizure of the evidence.” Segura, 468 U.S. at 814, 104 S.Ct. at 3390.
In Murray, federal agents illegally entered a warehouse, discovered marijuana, and then left to obtain a search warrant. The officers applied for a warrant without mentioning the illegal entry or relying on what they had seen during the entry. After the warrant was issued, the agents immediately reentered the warehouse, conducted their warrant search, and seized the marijuana. Notwithstanding the agents’ earlier, illegal entry, the Supreme Court held the marijuana should not be suppressed if the warrant search “was in fact a genuinely independent source of the ... evidence at issue.” Murray, 487 U.S. at 542, 108 S.Ct. at 2536. Thus, the Court was willing to apply the independent source doctrine to the marijuana seized in the warehouse as long as the agents did not exploit their illegal entry to secure the warrant. Id. The Court reemphasized its holding in Segura that an illegal entry by police officers does not taint evidence found when executing a valid search warrant obtained with information independent of the entry. Id. at 535, 538, 108 S.Ct. at 2532, 2533.
I believe the Martses’ case is an even stronger case than Segura or Murray for application of the independent source doctrine. Unlike those cases, the officers in this case obtained the search warrant before entering the Martses’ home. Like the officers in Segura, the officers in this ease made an illegal entry. The panel recognizes, however, the Martses’ search warrant was “legally obtained,” ante at 1220, and Steven Marts makes clear the evidence was found “after the entry” when “a thorough search began.” Brief for Steven Lester Marts at 5. Thus, the officers did not exploit their illegal entry. Because the information used to obtain the search warrant was independent of the illegal entry and the illegal entry did not contribute to the discovery of the evidence seized under the warrant, the evidence should not be suppressed. Murray, 487 U.S. at 537-38, 541-42, 108 S.Ct. at 2533-34, 2535-36; Segura, 468 U.S. at 799, 813-15, 104 S.Ct. at 3382, 3389-91.
The panel’s position that the evidence gathered at the Martses’ home must be suppressed because the officers’ warrant search was conducted “immediately upon their illegal entry,” ante at 1220, finds no support in the teachings of Segura and Murray. Instead, the panel overlooks Segura’s and Murray’s clear application to this case: the information used to obtain the warrant is an independent source for the discovery of the evidence. In these circumstances, “[wjhether the [officers’] initial entry [into the Martses’ home] was illegal or not is irrelevant to the admissibility of the challenged evidence.” Segura, 468 U.S. at 813, 104 S.Ct. at 3390.
The panel's suggestion that the officers' violation of 18 U.S.C. § 3109 "makes the search unreasonable per se," ante at 1220, is contrary to Segura and Murray and effectively cancels the warrant procedure. The panel fails to recognize that § 3109 does not control the execution of a valid search warrant, it only delays the police officers' entry to give the occupants "a brief opportunity . . . to order [their] personal affairs before the [officers] enter." United States v. Kane, 637 F.2d 974, 977 (3d Cir.1981). Because the warrant procedure protects the occupants' full array of privacy rights, the officers' entry under a legally obtained search warrant is inevitable. United States v. Nolan, 718 F.2d 589, 602 (3d Cir.1983). Thus, the panel's "per se" invocation of the exclusionary rule impermissibly "put[s] the [officers] (and society) not in the same position they would have occupied if no violation [of § 3109] occurred, but in a worse one." Murray, 487 U.S. at 541, 108 S.Ct. at 2535.
Contrary to the panel's view, the independent source doctrine does not render § 3109 "meaningless" or allow police officers to "break in doors of private homes *1222without sanction." Ante at 1220. The incentive to obey the statute remains: police officers know that any evidence seized "as a direct result of the entry may be suppressed." Segura, 468 U.S. at 812, 104 S.Ct. at 3389. Indeed, officers armed with a search warrant would be foolhardy to enter early in violation of § 3109 because they have no way of knowing what they will see, hear, or learn when they enter. See Murray, 487 U.S. at 540, 108 S.Ct. at 2534. Thus, application of the independent source doctrine to § 3109 violations fits squarely with the Supreme Court cases in which evidence gained when the police exploited a § 3109 violation was suppressed. See Sabbath v. United States, 391 U.S. 585, 88 S.Ct. 1755, 20 L.Ed.2d 828 (1968) (holding officers' illegal entry under § 3109 to arrest defendant required suppression of evidence seized in search incident to arrest); Miller v. United States, 357 U.S. 301, 78 S.Ct. 1190, 2 L.Ed.2d 1332 (1958) (same).
The panel suggests we cannot reverse the district court because the independent source doctrine was “not raised in the district court or in this court.” Ante at 1219. The panel’s position is not well taken. The government and the Martses raised and briefed the doctrine on appeal. See Brief for the Government at 21-23; Brief for Steven Lester Marts at 20-21; Brief for Pamela Sue Marts at 19-21. The Martses do not argue the doctrine was waived because it was not presented in the district court. In these circumstances, the courts of appeals uniformly exercise their discretion to entertain a purely legal question when the necessary facts appear in the record, and the application of the relevant principle is clear. See Cleland v. United States, 874 F.2d 517, 522 n. 6 (8th Cir.1989). Further, although the panel did not mention the independent source doctrine by name, the panel rejected the government's argument for reversal based on the doctrine. Ante at 1219. Thus, I believe the doctrine is before the court for consideration on the merits.
In my view the panel has dismantled the independent source doctrine. The officers' illegal entry into the Martses’ home did not contribute in any way to the discovery of the evidence seized under the independently-issued search warrant. Thus, we have a classic case for the doctrine’s application. I would reverse the district court’s order suppressing the evidence seized under the search warrant because the officers violated § 3109.