Court Opinion

ID: 9749848
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 13:58:03.280018+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:26:32.981221
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Me. Justice Mandeeino :
I respectfully dissent. The Fourth Amendment to the Federal Constitution and Article I, Section 8, of the Pennsylvania Constitution cannot reasonably be read as permitting the result reached by the majority. Information related orally to the magistrate but not recited in the affidavit, the basis for issuing a warrant, cannot be later considered in testing whether probable cause existed for the issuance of the warrant—unless we read the constitutional provisions in an unnatural and unreasonable manner.
In Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 115, 12 L. Ed. 2d 723, 84 S. Ct. 1509 (1964), it was stated “. . . we conclude, therefore, that the search warrant should not have been issued because the affidavit did not provide a sufficient basis for a finding of probable cause. . . .” (Emphasis supplied.) In Aguilar the Court was specifically concerned with whether the affidavit contained *324sufficient facts to justify the issuance of the warrant. Aguilar gave no indication that the defect of missing facts in the affidavit could be cured by subsequent testimony as to what facts were orally stated by the affiant at the time the warrant issued. Aguilar was later cited in United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 108-09, 13 L. Ed. 2d 684, 85 S. Ct. 741 (1965) and the Court said “. . . [i]Ais is not to say that probable cause can be made out by affidavits which are purely conclusory, stating only that the affiant’s or an informer’s belief that probable cause exists without detailing any of the ‘underlying circumstances’ upon which that belief is based. . . . Recital of some of the underlying circumstances in the affidavit is essential if the magistrate is to perform his detached function. . . .” (Emphasis supplied.)
More recently, in United States v. Harris, 403 U.S. 573, 29 L. Ed. 2d 723, 91 S. Ct. 2075 (1971), the Court in analyzing the sufficiency of facts necessary to constitute probable cause for the issuance of a warrant consistently referred to facts contained—or not contained —in the affidavit.
In all of these cases, it is clear that the Court is discussing the requirement of the Fourth Amendment that “. . . no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or things to be seized. . . .”
Nor is it valid to conclude that the above cases were not concerned with Fourth Amendment requirements but only with the requirements of Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. In Aguilar there is no reference whatsoever to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. There is not even a hint in any of the above decisions that the requirement of Aguilar holding that the affidavit must provide a sufficient basis for the finding of probable cause is based on Rule *32541 of the Federal Eules of Criminal Procedure rather than on the constitutional requirement of the Fourth Amendment.
The requirements of the Declaration of Human Eights of the Pennsylvania Constitution, Article I, Section 8, is more explicit than the Fourth Amendment of the Federal Constitution.
The Pennsylvania Declaration of Human Eights states: “The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and possessions from unreasonable searches and seizures, and no warrant to search any place or to seize any person or things shall issue without describing them as nearly as may be, nor without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation subscribed to by the affiant. . . .” (Emphasis supplied.)
The Pennsylvania Constitution requires that the probable cause be supported by oath or affirmation subscribed to by the affiant.
The strained and unnatural interpretation placed on the above language in Commonwealth v. Crawley, 209 Pa. Superior Ct. 70, 223 A. 2d 885 (1966), cannot be followed. According to the Crawley case, the words in the Pennsylvania Constitution “subscribed to by the affiant” refers only to the oath or affirmation separate from the probable cause. Only a tortured reading permits such a conclusion. An oath or affirmation does not hang in midair. It is the imprimatur of that which is being sworn to or affirmed.
An oath or affirmation does not appear at the end of a blank sheet of paper. It supports that which precedes the oath or affirmation. The Constitution makes clear that the probable cause must be supported by the oath or affirmation.
The language of the Constitution states that the affiant must subscribe to something. One does not subscribe to nothing.
*326Tf the Pennsylvania Declaration of Human Rights did not require the recitation in the affidavit of the underlying facts providing the basis for the probable cause, it would be sufficient if an affidavit merely recited the following “I swear that what I told the magistrate is true.” The statement of such a result makes a mockery of the requirements of the Pennsylvania Declaration of Human Rights.
Again, the Pennsylvania Constitution refers to the affiant. An affiant is one who signs an affidavit. An affidavit is always a written statement of the facts signed by the affiant under oath or affirmation.
The Fourth Amendment requires specificity. It speaks of particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or things to be seized. The Pennsylvania Constitution is likewise specific. As to the place, person or things, it requires describing them as nearly as may be. Better language could not have been chosen to express in the context of the. constitutional provisions, that a writing is required. The effect of the majority’s conclusion would be to allow the specificity required by both Constitutions to sometimes be related orally which cannot possibly have been intended by the language in the Constitutions.
Under the majority’s conclusion, a magistrate can issue a warrant upon an application which contained nothing in writing except a person’s name or an address. All other particulars can be handled by oral recitation and proven months or years later. I cannot agree with such a loose and blatantly unreasonable interpretation of the language in the Federal and Pennsylvania Constitutions. In interpreting human rights the first concern is the freedom of a free people. The judgment of sentence should be reversed and a new trial ordered.