Court Opinion

ID: 9719272
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:47:10.483502+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:05.633743
License: Public Domain

Acting Justice KING.
Respectfully, I concur in part and dissent in part. I agree with the majority that the inadvertent discovery requirement is no longer realistic, and that we should join the majority of states in discarding this requirement. However, I disagree that this Court may then decide the remaining two requirements of the plain view doctrine according to its own view of the facts. For that reason, I would remand the case for the trial court to make those determinations.
In criminal cases, the appellate court sits to review errors of law only. State v. Gaster, 349 S.C. 545, 557, 564 S.E.2d 87, 93 (2002) (citations omitted). The admission of evidence is within the discretion of the trial court and will not be reversed unless it is based upon an error of law. State v. McDonald, 343 S.C. 319, 325, 540 S.E.2d 464, 467 (2000). Here, the trial court granted the defendants’ motion to suppress based upon an error of law — its conclusion that the State must prove the *447discovery was inadvertent.3 The trial court did not make specific findings regarding the remaining requirements of the plain view doctrine: (1) whether the initial intrusion which afforded the authorities the plain view was lawful, and (2) whether the incriminating nature of the evidence was immediately apparent to the seizing authorities. See State v. Beckham, 334 S.C. 302, 317, 513 S.E.2d 606, 613 (1999) (outlining the requirements of the plain view doctrine). Therefore, in my view, the proper result would be to adopt the appropriate standard as established in Horton v. California, 496 U.S. 128, 110 S.Ct. 2301, 110 L.Ed.2d 112 (1990), and remand the case to allow the trial court to make the factual determinations regarding the remaining two elements.
PLEICONES, J., concurs.

. Certainly, the trial judge could not foresee a change in the law, and he correctly relied upon the existing law when he made his ruling.