Court Opinion

ID: 9534581
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:41:10.293023+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:31:55.618494
License: Public Domain

BARHAM, Justice
(concurring in the decree only).
The opinion is far broader than the narrow question presented for our determination. I take issue with the dictum that when a judge makes an ex parte determination that an affiant is truthful in character, there can be no later contradictory determination of whether the affiant was truthful in fact. A knowingly false affidavit cannot support a search warrant. To hold otherwise would invite police officers not to seek actual probable cause to support a warrant, but rather to deliberately state a falsehood which reflects fabricated probable cause. Probable cause is a state of mind. If there is no probable cause in the mind of the affiant in fact, there can be no basis for legal probable cause upon which a warrant can stand. The factual basis of an affidavit may be false, but there must have been a belief in the affiant’s mind of its verity. Most of the cases relied upon have dealt with false information and not false swearing. I therefore concur in the decree only.