Court Opinion

ID: 9761446
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:43:06.660245+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:23.780959
License: Public Domain

NIX, Justice,
concurring.
The single question underpinning the majority’s result was the legality of the arrest of the appellant. I agree with the conclusion that the arrest within the Short’s residence was an unlawful one and consequently there cannot be a conviction under 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 2702(a)(2), which expressly requires that the assault must occur during a lawful arrest. The affidavit supporting the warrant of arrest was unquestionably insufficient to provide the issuing authority with information that would allow for his independent determination of the existence of the probable cause for the seizure of appellant’s person. Moreover, since the arrest was made in a home where appellant regularly resided the mandate of Commonwealth v. Williams, 483 Pa. 293, 396 A.2d 1177 (1978) was properly found to be applicable.
*560This separate opinion is occasioned by the gratuitous discussion in the majority’s opinion of the question of appellant’s standing to challenge the legality of a search in the Short home. This discussion was not only totally unrelated to the issues to be resolved and therefore misleading, its even greater offense is that the analysis employed, when used in context with the question of the execution of a body warrant, is erroneous. The question as to whether police officials must secure a search warrant where they intend to execute an arrest warrant for a suspect within the residence of a third party1 has provoked disagreement among the jurisdictions considering the question2. See generally, Search and Seizure, La Fave Chpt. 6, section 6.1. Nevertheless, the overwhelming consensus appears to be that a valid arrest warrant is sufficient to sustain the arrest even where the entry may have been deemed illegal because of a violation of the search warrant provisions. U. S. v. Cravero, 545 F.2d 406 (5th Cir. 1976).
“To be sure, they invaded his right of liberty, but they had proper authority to do that, in the form of the arrest warrant. The invasion of appellant’s right of liberty, however, was not an invasion of his right of privacy; a fugitive does not have a right of privacy if by ‘privacy’ is meant a right to hide from, or to resist, proper arrest.”
*561Commonwealth v. Stanley, - Pa.Super. -, -, 401 A.2d 1166, 1177 (1979) (Spaeth J., dissenting opinion)3.
Where the only “fruit” of the search being considered is the legality of the arrest, as is the case in this appeal, it is misleading to suggest that appellant has an expectation of privacy or that his arrest may be invalidated if there was an offensive intrusion upon the Fourth Amendment rights of the third party. It is for these reasons that I can only concur in the judgment of the Court.

. The reasoning of those decisions requiring a search warrant before a legal entry may be made to execute a body warrant for a suspect in the home of a third party is not compelling where the execution of the warrant of arrest is executed in the residence of the fugitive. If the validity of the search was critical in this case, the determination of whether the Short’s home could be considered appellant’s residence might be dispositive and certainly deserving of a more in depth consideration than given by the majority.

. In U. S. v. Harper, 550 F.2d 610 (10th Cir. 1977), the court held that where police authorities have obtained a warrant of arrest they need not secure a search warrant to enter the premises of a third party to effectuate that arrest.
In U. S. v. Cravero, 545 F.2d 406 (5th Cir. 1976) a panel concluded that the rules governing searches should apply with equal force to an arrest entry into a third party’s home. On rehearing the court en banc held that where an officer has a valid warrant of arrest and reasonably believes his subject is within the premises of a third party no search warrant for the premises is required.

. This portion of the dissenting opinion was joined in by the full court. Commonwealth v. Stanley, supra at -, 401 A.2d 1170.