Court Opinion

ID: 9446542
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:58:05.714364+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:41.733832
License: Public Domain

BAZELON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
In executing the search warrant, I think the police violated both the letter and the spirit of 18 U.S.C. § 3109, which requires them to give notice of their authority and purpose before breaking into the premises to be searched.1 Hence, admission of the evidence obtained thereby is reversible error.
At trial, there was sharp conAiet as to the manner in which the warrant was executed. The police testified that they knocked on the door of the third-Aoor apartment designated in the warrant, but remained mute to the several inquiries of defendant as to who was there; that the defendant then went to the bathroom window and shouted, without response, to the plain-clothes policeman stationed in the street below to bring the janitor because someone was at his door and would not go away; that the janitor was obtained, the police again knocked, and, when inquiry was again made as to who was there, they speciAed “janitor”; that defendant then opened the door part way; that one of the police officers then placed his wallet identiAcation in the opening of the door and stated he had a search warrant, but pushed his way in when defendant “tore” away towards the bathroom.
Defendant’s story differed materially. He testiAed that instead of remaining mute, the police answered his inquiries of “Who’s there” with “Jim, Jack open up”; that when he shouted to the plainclothes man to get the janitor, the plainclothes man told him to open the door and see who was knocking; that when he *238commenced opening the door for the janitor, the police immediately pushed in and only later announced themselves and served the warrant.
Nothing in the record indicates that this conflict in the testimony was either considered or resolved in the court below. For present purposes, I accept the Government’s version. It plainly shows a persistent course of conduct by police to conceal rather than reveal their “authority and purpose,” and to gain entry without giving any semblance of the notice required by statute. The long-delayed and last-ditch notice described by the police was no more than Active compliance. It was much too little and much too late.2
That defendant had standing to seek suppression of the evidence gained by the illegal entry was settled by this court in Woods v. United States, 1956, 99 U.S.App.D.C. 351, 240 F.2d 37, certiorari denied 1957, 353 U.S. 941, 77 S.Ct. 815, 1 L.Ed.2d 760, reversing in part, United States v. Bell, D.C.D.C.1955, 126 F.Supp. 612. There we held that standing to raise a § 3109 violation runs not only to the occupant of the premises violated by an illegally forceful entry, but also to those present on the premises when such a violent entry occurs. The majority does not distinguish between standing to suppress evidence obtained by a search or arrest in violation of the Constitution, and standing to suppress evidence obtained through violation of § 3109. Whatever may be the limitations on standing to claim the constitutional privilege, see note 5 infra, they are inapplicable to § 3109.
Although the § 3109 violation was not urged below as a basis for suppressing the evidence, I think the admission is plain error which we are authorized to notice under Rule ^2(b), Fed.R.Crim.P., 18 U.S.C.A.3 Not only were the circumstances of the entry aggravated, but the sole evidence upon which conviction could have been based was obtained as a result of the illegal entry. We are not advised why this issue was not raised at trial by counsel assigned below (as distinguished from present counsel appointed by this court). But I submit that it may be related to counsel’s statement to the trial court that he was too burdened at the time of trial properly to prepare his case and that he had misgivings about the adequacy of his presentation.4
*239Since I think the evidence must be excluded because of the illegal execution of the search warrant, I find it unnecessary to consider the validity of the warrant and defendant’s standing to chailenge its validity.5

. 62 Stat. 820 (1948), 18 U.S.C. § 3109 (1952):
The officer may break open any outer or inner door or window of a house, or any part of a house, or anything therein, to execute a search warrant, if, after notice of his authority and purpose, he is refused admittance or when necessary to liberate himself or a person aiding him in the execution of the warrant.

. As this court stated in McKnight v. United States, 1950, 87 U.S.App.D.C. 151, 152, 183 F.2d 977, 978: “To execute the warrant * * * there was no necessity to break open doors; or, what comes to the same thing for legal purposes, none but what the officers themselves created.' * * * Neither policemen nor private citizens can justify breaking into a house, or other violence, by deliberately creating an alleged necessity for it.”
The holding in the McKnight case is not directly applicable to the circumstances disclosed below. The entry in McKnight took place pursuant to the putative authority of an arrest warrant, whereas the entry at bar was pursuant to a search warrant and is therefore governed by 18 U.S.O. § 3109. However, in this case as in McKnight, had the police officers in the first instance taken those steps which were required, there might have been no necessity for the breaking subsequently ensuing.
See Gatewood v. United States, 1953, 93 U.S.App.D.C. 226, 228, 209 F.2d 789, 791, where, citing Gouled v. United States, 1921, 255 U.S. 298, 41 S.Ct. 261, 65 L.Ed. 647, this court again declared: “Entry by stealth can, of course, be as unlawful as entry by illegal use of force.” And see Miller v. United States, 1958, 357 U.S. 301, 78 S.Ct. 1190, 2 L.Ed.2d 1332; Accarino v. United States, 1949, 85 U.S.App.D.C. 394, 179 F.2d 456.

. See, e. g., Pinkard v. United States, 1957, 99 U.S.App.D.C. 394, 240 F.2d 632; Simmons v. United States, 1953, 92 U.S.App.D.C. 122, 206 F.2d 427; Tatum v. United States, 1951, 88 U.S.App.D.C. 386, 190 F.2d 612.

. “Finally, I want it puttin the record that since this is an assigned case that I have been almost every day in this Court. This fellow is confined in the jail and I can visit him from nine until three, and from nine until three I was up here so if I did not have a better preparation or more requests, I have had no opportunity.”
*239And, although defense counsel had argued a motion in the case several weeks prior to trial, there exists on the record liis unexplained statement, made at the end of the trial: “I certainly did not know anything about this case until yesterday afternoon.”

. On the Question of standing, cf. my dissenting opinion in Christensen v. United States, 1958, 104 U.S.App.D.C. -, 259 F.2d 192, 193. In this regard, I note in passing that the trial judge considered himself hound by the pretrial decision on the motion to suppress. But see Gouled v. United States, 1921, 255 U.S. 298, 313, 41 S.Ct. 261, 65 L.Ed. 647.