Court Opinion

ID: 9692055
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 15:38:34.477424+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:30.136300
License: Public Domain

PAGE, Justice
(concurring).
I concur in the result, but I write separately to note that I would hold that it was error for the trial court to admit into evidence the recording of Thompson’s conversation with his mother.
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section *49710, of the Minnesota Constitution protect “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects” against “unreasonable searches and seizures.” The Fourth Amendment “protects people, not places.” Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967). What one “seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected.” Id. at 351-52, 88 S.Ct. 507. A person’s privacy expectation is protected if it is legitimate, meaning the person had “an actual (subjective) expectation of privacy” and, second, the expectation is one “society is prepared to recognize as ‘reasonable.’ ” Id. at 361, 88 S.Ct. 507 (Harlan, J., concurring). Electronic eavesdropping may constitute an unreasonable search or seizure. Lanza v. New York, 370 U.S. 139, 142, 82 S.Ct. 1218, 8 L.Ed.2d 384 (1962).
Here, the police unreasonably intruded on Thompson’s privacy by recording his conversation with his mother. The Legislature has specifically recognized a parent-child privilege of confidentiality. As a result, it is improper for the police to invade this privilege. Minn.Stat. § 595.02, subd. l(j) (2008) (“A parent or the parent’s minor child may not be examined as to any communication made in confidence by the minor to the minor’s parent. A communication is confidential if made out of the presence of persons not members of the child’s immediate family living in the same household.”). Further, the Supreme Court has held that even in a jail setting, “the relationships which the law has endowed with particularized confidentiality must continue to receive unceasing protection.” Lanza, 370 U.S. at 144, 82 S.Ct. 1218. “Consultation with a parent is meaningless if the police may surreptitiously record the conversation between the parent and child and the prosecutor may then play the recording to the jury.” Dickerson v. State, 292 Ga.App. 775, 666 S.E.2d 43, 48 (2008)
(Barnes, C.J., concurring specially). Just as we would not allow “the recording of a conversation between a defendant and his attorney, we should not permit the recording of a conversation between a juvenile defendant and his parent.” Id.; cf. People v. Harrell, 87 A.D.2d 21, 450 N.Y.S.2d 501, 505 (N.Y.App.Div.1982) (concluding that a 17-year-old defendant’s statement to his mother should have been suppressed when he was not afforded privacy or given appropriate warnings), aff'd mem., 59 N.Y.2d 620, 463 N.Y.S.2d 185, 449 N.E.2d 1263 (1983).
Thus, I would conclude that the police improperly recorded the conversation between Thompson and his mother and that admitting evidence of that conversation at trial was error. While I believe that the admission of such evidence was in error, I concur in the result as the error in admitting that evidence was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
ANDERSON, PAUL H., Justice (concurring).
I join in the concurrence of Justice Page.