Court Opinion

ID: 9665823
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:57:47.720764+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:19.213976
License: Public Domain

Levin, J.
(concurring). I concur in affirming the defendant’s conviction because the police acted properly in searching the occupants of the automobile for a pistol and because the other assignments of error are without merit.
I cannot join in the Court’s opinion because it says that even if the pistol had been illegally seized it would be admissible in evidence because it was taken from someone other than the defendant.
The exclusionary rule seeks to discourage unlawful police procedures by depriving the State of the fruit of illegal behavior. That objective is undermined by a rule which treats as admissible illegally-seized evidence as long as it is used against someone other than the person from whom it is illegally taken.1
I recognize that in Alderman v. United States (1969), 394 US 165, 171 (89 S Ct 961, 22 L Ed 2d 176), reh den 394 US 939 (89 S Ct 1177, 22 L Ed 2d 475), the United States Supreme Court held, in *588effect, that only those “whose rights were violated” by an illegal search have standing to complain.2 That minimum standard does not, as the Supreme Court itself observed,3 preclude the states from recognizing a higher standard.
The California Supreme Court has declared:
“if law enforcement officers are allowed to evade the exclusionary rule by obtaining evidence in violation of the rights of third parties, its deterrent effect is to that extent nullified. Moreover, such a limitation virtually invites law enforcement officers to violate the rights of third parties and to trade the escape of a criminal whose rights are violated for the conviction of others by the use of the evidence illegally obtained against them.” People v. Martin (1933), 45 Cal 2d 755, 760 (290 P2d 855, 857).
In my opinion, Michigan should adopt the rule adopted by the California Supreme Court. Even though a man’s privacy may have been grossly violated by the police he is not likely to complain unless he is charged with an offense — if he complains he may be charged as an accomplice. Unless the accused person can complain, no one will have both the right and the incentive to complain.
The Fourth Amendment protects “people, not places”.4 ***A core meaning is that a citizen’s privacy shall be respected by the State.5 The rule for which the majority write does not respect or protect the privacy of the citizen. It rewards the police for intruding on a citizen’s privacy in “no-standing” *589cases and, therefore, encourages offensive and lawless procedures.
The “no-standing” rule is difficult to administer. It adds boggling complexity to what has become an unnecessarily intricate body of law.
Additionally, on the facts of this case Joshua had standing to complain. When he was stopped by the police he was driving an automobile that he had leased. He threw the pistol on the back seat of the automobile. Subsequently, a female occupant of the automobile put the pistol in her purse.
In State v. Wade (1965), 89 NJ Super 139, 149 (214 A2d 411, 417), a New Jersey appellate court declared:
“an admitted owner of personal property found and seized by the police in the course of an illegal search of the premises or property of another has standing as a defendant to object to the use of such property as evidence against him notwithstanding he was not present and had no possessory interest in the premises searched at the time of the search.”
In Dean v. Fogliani (1965), 81 Nev 541 (407 P2d 580, 582), the Nevada Supreme Court declared:
“The accused now need only establish that he was legitimately on the premises when he placed the fruits of the search there and where the search later occurred. His personal presence at the time of the search is not a necessary ingredient.”
Joshua had a possessory interest in the automobile and a possessory interest in the pistol.6 He was legitimately “on the premises” of the automobile when he placed the fruits of the search on the back *590seat. The other occupants were still in the automobile when the search occurred. See Jones v. United States (1960), 362 US 257, 261 (80 S Ct 725, 4 L Ed 2d 697, 78 ALR2d 233).
The testimony also showed that when the police searched the occupants the investigation had already focused on Joshua.7 Surely the individual against whom the search is aimed has standing to complain about the legality of the means employed by the police in making the search. See Jones v. United States, supra, p 261, where the United States Supreme Court declared that “one against whom the search was directed” has standing to complain of an unlawful search and seizure.8
While Joshua had standing to complain, his complaint lacks substantive merit. On the facts of this case, the police were justified in stopping and searching the automobile and its occupants for a pistol.

 See Grove, Suppression of Illegally Obtained Evidence: The Standing Requirement on its Last Leg, 18 Catholic U L Rev 150, 154, 177 (1968); Note, Standing to Object to an Unreasonable Search and Seizure, 34 Chicago U L Rev 342, 366 (1967); Note, Standing and the Fourth Amendment, 38 Cinei L Rev 691, 701 (1969); Comment, Standing to Objeet to Unreasonable Search and Seizure, 34 Mo L Rev 575, 587 (1969); Note, Standing to Object to an Unlawful Search and Seizure, Wash Univ L Qty (1965), p 488, 519, 520. But see White and Greenspan, Standing to Object to Search and Seizure, 118 U Pa L Rev 333 (1970); for a response see 38 Cinei L Rev, supra, pp 701, 702.
See also ALI, A Model Code of Pre-Arraignment Procedure, T D No 3, § 8.01, pp 103-105.

 In Alderman the Court held that eoeonspirators and codefendants whose rights were not violated by illegal eavesdropping have no standing to object to the admission of evidence obtained as a fruit of such eavesdropping.

 Adlerman v. United States, supra, p 175.

 Katz v. United States (1967), 389 US 347, 351 (88 S Ct 507, 19 L Ed 2d 576).

 See Warden, Maryland Penitentiary, v. Hayden (1967), 387 US 294, 304 (87 S Ct 1642, 18 L Ed 2d 782).

 See United States v. Jeffers (1951), 342 US 48, 54 (72 S Ct 93, 96 L Ed 59) where the defendant was held to have standing to complain about an illegal search and seizure of contraband that he had stored on premises occupied by other persons.

 When the police discovered at the station house that Joshua was wearing an empty holster, a radio call was dispatched to stop the automobile. When the automobile was stopped, it and its occupants were searched to determine whether, as suspected, Joshua, who was then under arrest, had indeed left a pistol in the automobile or with one of the other occupants when he was asked to accompany the officers to the station house. The record would not support a finding that the occupants consented to the search. Cf. People v. Marshall (1970), 25 Mich App 376, 381. As to the right of a possessor of incriminating evidence to consent to a search to exculpate himself, see People v. Smith (1969), 19 Mich App 359, 371, fn 12 last paragraph.

 See White and Greenspan, Standing to Object to Search and Seizure, 118 U Pa L Rev 333, 349 (1970).