Court Opinion

ID: 9567843
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:58:17.677187+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:20:46.095464
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
dissenting.
The majority opinion holds that a copy of a search warrant was all that was needed by the officer in order to search defendant’s residence. This is as contradictory of the Constitution and the laws as can possibly be!
The officer obtained a search warrant but went back to his office, had a copy made, placed the original in his desk, and proceeded to the residence ten miles away, with no search warrant and yet made the illegal search. There is no authority whatever for making a search with a copy of a search warrant!
The majority opinion cites a Texas case, which is not binding upon this court (see Etowah Heading Co. v. Anderson, 73 Ga. App. 814 (38 SE2d 71); Martin v. Henson, 95 Ga. App. 715, 733 (99 SE2d 251); Hooper v. Almand, 196 Ga. 52, 67 (25 SE2d 778)), and proceeds full steam ahead with the excuse that this is apparently a case "of first impression in this state.” But it is not a case of first impression. The search was not legal under authority of a plethora of Georgia cases which will be herein cited.
Under the authority of Adams v. State, 121 Ga. 163 (3) (48 SE 910) and at page 165, and Shafer v. State, 193 Ga. 748 (2) (20 SE2d 34), a search warrant is required to be in the possession of the officer or so immediately at hand that it may be exhibited as authority for making the search when executed. A copy is not a warrant! Code Ann. § 27-305 provides for the warrant to be issued in duplicate and a copy shall be left with any person from whom articles are seized. Code Ann. § 27-306. The obvious purpose is to give the persons affected by the warrant notice for the basis of its issuance.
The constitutional authority and the only purpose for the issuance of a search warrant is to protect the right of *13the people in their homes against illegal search. Constitution of the United States, Fourth Amendment (Code Ann. § 1-804); Constitution of Georgia (Code Ann. § 2-116); Code Ch. 27-3, as amended. Thus, there is no right to search without a warrant.
Our criminal statutes must be and are always strictly construed in favor of the citizen and against the state. Riley v. Garrett, 219 Ga. 345 (1) (133 SE2d 367), and cases cited at page 347; also Pacolet Mfg. Co. v. Weiss, 185 Ga. 287, 295 (194 SE 568); Polk v. Thomason, 130 Ga. 542, 544 (61 SE 123).
When the barons wrested from King John the Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215, the Bill of Rights contained the provision for protection against illegal searches. This is so important that it is brought forth in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States (see Code Ann. § 1-804) and in the Constitution of Georgia (see Code Ann. § 2-116). It is not a light or frivolous trifle to violate this basic fundamental in our law.
Our courts have held that a warrant is not in the possession of the officer whereby he is authorized to make an arrest, if the warrant is in his house some distance from the scene of the arrest. See Adams v. State, 121 Ga. 163 (3), supra. Fortunately, we have not yet degenerated to a police state where the police officers may break and enter at will. The police are required to obtain a warrant as their justification before so doing. Without the warrant they have nothing! See Luffman v. State, 166 Ga. 296, 300 (143 SE 371); Giddens v. State, 154 Ga. 54 (113 SE 386); Douglas v. State, 152 Ga. 379 (110 SE 168).
The above principle of law has been enumerated at least two times in cases of fairly recent origin in this court. See Croker v. State, 114 Ga. App. 492, 494 (1) (151 SE2d 846), and Hall v. State, 113 Ga. App. 587 (149 SE2d 175), although these cases turned on other points.
I therefore, respectfully, but most emphatically, vote to reverse the learned trial judge. He should have granted the motion to suppress and should not have allowed the "slip-shod” practice of permitting the officer to make this illegal search without a search warrant in his possession. In such cases, the police are mere trespassers.
We will not end this dissent without commenting on *14Judge Deen’s case of Croker v. State, 114 Ga. App. 492, 494 (1), supra, citing Shafer v. State, 193 Ga. 748, supra, and Adams v. State, 121 Ga. 163 (3), supra. But that case serves to support the dissent, rather than the majority opinion. There it was held that the officer should have had the warrant "in his physical possession or so near at hand that it can be exhibited on demand.” Here the warrant was at least ten miles away! Further, in the Croker case, it was known that a felony warrant had been issued and that the offender would escape if time were taken to procure physical possession of the search warrant. No such distinguishing features exist in the DeFreeze case which we now have under consideration, and same should be reversed.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Pknnell joins in this dissent.