Court Opinion

ID: 9464676
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:39:53.574114+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:45.636515
License: Public Domain

HENLEY, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I fully concur in the result reached by the court in these cases and am in full agreement with the views expressed by Judge Bright save to the extent that his opinion disposes of the claim of the defendants that the six ounces of PCP seized by Officer Albrecht on the premises of Ramirez on January 28, 1977 should have been suppressed as evidence on the basis of the concurrent sentence rule.
The status of that rule in this circuit at this time is doubtful at best. Sanders v. United States, 541 F.2d 190, 193-94 (8th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1066, 97 S.Ct. 796, 50 L.Ed.2d 784 (1977). While the rule still has viability in certain circumstances, I prefer to decide the search and seizure question presented in this case on the merits.
It appears to me that when Ramirez exhibited the six ounces of PCP to Albrecht after Albrecht had tested the small sample given to him a few moments earlier, Albrecht would have been justified in arresting Ramirez immediately and seizing the drug as an incident to a lawful arrest or by reference to the plain view doctrine. I do not thing that the very short time that -elapsed between Albrecht’s view of the package and his reentry into the Ramirez home at which time he arrested Ramirez and seized the drug was of any constitutional importance. And I would reject the contention of the defendants on that basis rather than on the basis of the concurrent sentence rule.