Court Opinion

ID: 9630244
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:06:03.508837+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:34.580405
License: Public Domain

CLIFFORD, Justice,
with whom COLLINS, Justice, joins, dissenting.
I agree with the Court that the warrant was issued with insufficient probable cause. Because, however, in my view the evidence was seized by the officers acting in objectively reasonable good faith reliance on a facially valid warrant issued by a neutral magistrate, I would deny the motion to suppress on the basis of the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule, as recognized in United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984).
In Leon, the United States Supreme Court enunciated a limited exception to the exclusionary rule under the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution, made applicable to the states through the fourteenth amendment. The Court held that evidence obtained by officers acting in objectively reasonable good faith reliance on a facially valid search warrant issued by a detached and neutral magistrate is admissible in the state’s case. After balancing the costs and benefits of suppressing reliable physical evidence seized by law enforcement officials relying in good faith on a search warrant reasonably obtained, the Court concluded that exclusion of the evidence does not serve the purpose of deterring police misconduct (the reason the court-created exclusionary rule was established) when the warrant is later found to be invalid. 468 U.S. at 923-25, 104 S.Ct. at 3421.
This Court, however, declines to apply the good faith exception in this case because it concludes that the affidavit supporting the warrant is so deficient that any official belief in the existence of probable cause is unreasonable. See Leon, 468 U.S. at 923, 104 S.Ct. at 3420 (good faith exception does not apply in certain circumstances, one of which is when warrant is based on an affidavit so lacking in indicia of probable cause that official belief in its existence is unreasonable). I disagree.
The Superior Court found, and that finding is not clearly erroneous, that the police officers acted in good faith and believed they had probable cause when they requested and executed the warrant. Moreover, an experienced, competent, impartial, and independent complaint justice concluded that there was probable cause. Even though the result of our review is that probable cause was lacking in the affidavit, the affidavit is not so deficient in indicia of probable cause as to render any official belief in its existence unreasonable and lacking in good faith. Leon, 468 U.S. at 923, 104 S.Ct. at 3421.
I would vacate the judgment and remand to the Superior Court for entry of an order denying the motion to suppress the evidence.