Court Opinion

ID: 9864753
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 16:09:34.955915+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:31:32.056259
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Knous
concurring specially.
As I view, the court opinion in extending the doctrine of the case of Massantonio v. People, 77 Colo. 392, 236 Pac. 1019, to justify the admissibility in evidence of the books, records and suits of clothes seized by the police in the unlawful search of the place of business of the defendants, improperly disregards the established law as announced in United States v. Lefkowitz, 285 U. S. 452, 52 Sup. Ct. 420, 76 L. Ed. 877. Distinction should be preserved between searches made for the seizure of contraband articles, the possession of which is per se illegal and criminal, as was the nature of the intoxicating liquor involved in the Massantonio case, and searches, general and exploratory in character, made solely to get evidence to convict one of a crime and wherein the items appropriated have no illegal status or aspect, as is the situation in the case at bar. Notwithstanding my belief that the court opinion errs in the application of the Massantonio decision, I do not dissent to the affirmance of the judgment because, in my conception, such of the illegally seized articles as were admitted in evidence did not have the effect or tendency of proving defendants’ guilt but, if anything, corroborated the defenses unsuccessfully advanced by them.