Court Opinion

ID: 9605643
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:39:49.422399+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:29.228389
License: Public Domain

BUSSEY, Judge
(specially concurring):
I am of the opinion that under all the facts and attendant circumstances in the instant case, when the arresting officer, after stopping the defendant for a defective headlight, observed the expended cartridges within the automobile, he had a right not only to search the defendant, but to search the automobile, for the cartridges which were observed, were in plain view. The sack containing the marijuana might well have contained a pistol, and although no pistol was found, the discovery of this contraband found incident to a lawful arrest and search for weapon, was admissible.
In connection with the defendant’s contention that the search warrant consent given for his residence was coerced, it is apparent that he had been advised of his Miranda warnings prior to the consent, and of his right to resist the search of his home. It is my opinion that the introduction of the marijuana seized at the home of the defendant, under the consent waiver, did not substantially or reasonably contribute to the jury’s determination of the defendant’s guilt, since ample evidence of his guilt had been produced, independent of the marijuana seized under the waiver of search, and even had the consent to search the home been involuntarily given, this conviction should be affirmed under the decisions of the United States Supreme Court in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 and Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 since the admission of such evidence was, at most, harmless error.