Court Opinion

ID: 9775141
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:45:05.050636+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:21.072958
License: Public Domain

David Newbern, Justice, dissenting. The majority opinion bases the affirmance in this case upon Murray v. United States, 487 U.S. 533 (1988), and its exposition of the independent-source doctrine. In the Murray case, the Supreme Court’s opinion states that the United States District Court found that agents who conducted an illegal search prior to obtaining a search warrant “did not reveal their warrantless entry to the Magistrate” who subsequendy issued a search warrant. 487 U.S. at 543. In discussing the independent-source doctrine, Mr. Justice Scalia, on behalf of the Supreme Court majority, wrote: The ultimate question, therefore, is whether the search pursuant to warrant was in fact a genuinely independent source of the information and tangible evidence at issue here. This would not have been the case if the agents’ decision to seek the warrant was prompted by what they had seen during the initial entry, or if information obtained during that entry was presented to the Magistrate and affected his decision to issue the warrant. 487 U.S. at 542 (emphasis added, footnote omitted). It is no wonder the State does not cite the Murray case in this appeal; rather, it cites Segura v. United States, 468 U.S. 796 (1984), with a “Cf.” signal in support its independent-source doctrine argument. The Segura case, as described in the Murray case opinion, “held that police officers’ illegal entry upon private premises did not require suppression of evidence subsequently discovered at those premises when executing a search warrant obtained on the basis of information wholly unconnected with the initial entry.” 487 U.S. at 535, emphasis added. The State’s petition for review and the majority opinion acknowledge that the affidavit presented to the judge who issued the search warrant contained information about the previous illegal search and evidence found in that search. It is apparent that, in the circumstances presented here, the Murray case and the independent-source rule do not apply. In its supplemental brief to this Court on review of the Court of Appeals decision, the State asks that we evaluate the search warrant affidavit by excising the “improper” portion, citing by analogy Pyle v. State, 314 Ark. 165, 862 S.W.2d 823 (1993), which involved a search warrant affidavit that contained false and misleading statements. There we noted that, to disqualify the affidavit, the statements of the officers must have been “knowingly” false or made “recklessly” without knowledge of their truth or falsity. We held that the evidence did not support any such conclusion. We also said, however, that even if such a conclusion were supported by the evidence, statements in the affidavit other than those alleged to have been false would have been sufficient to support the issuance of the search warrant. Inconsistent with the language in the Murray opinion, the majority opinion takes that approach, citing United States Court of Appeals cases. For any court to say the decision of the judge issuing a search warrant was not “affected by” the presence of information such as that presented as the result of an acknowledged illegal search in this case is to wink at a serious violation of the Fourth Amendment. Some may applaud the majority opinion as overcoming form in favor of substance or as not letting the guilty get away due to “technicalities.” Although not a very handsome one, “technicalities” is another name for the Bill of Rights. Our duty is to do what we can to prevent the home of any citizen from being subjected to unlawful intrusion or search by the government. The only way to accomplish it is to hold that evidence obtained as the direct or indirect result of a constitutional violation is inadmissible. The result reached by the Arkansas Court of Appeals reversing the convictions in this case was correct. I respectfully dissent. Glaze, J., joins.