Court Opinion

ID: 9666294
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:10:19.546133+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:26.201137
License: Public Domain

MORRISON, Judge
(dissenting).
My brethren overrule appellant’s motion to vacate our judgment herein, and I respectfully dissent. No mandate has been issued, and on June 15, 1964, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the case of Aguilar v. Texas, 84 S.Ct. 1509.
*270In light of this decision, I feel that our original opinion of affirmance should be withdrawn; the judgment set aside and reversed for the following reason. Although the contraband in the case at bar was acquired by the officers by means of an arrest warrant based upon a complaint that charged an offense in unequivocal terms, the complaint does not show on its face to have been made by a person who acquired his knowledge by personal observation. In fact, the complaint did not contain affirmative allegations that the affiant spoke with personal knowledge of the matters contained therein, did not indicate any source of the complainant’s belief, and did not set forth any other sufficient basis upon which the finding of probable cause could be made. By specific objection made during the course of the trial, the question of the sufficiency of the affidavit was called to the trial court’s attention and was presented as grounds for reversal on appeal in this Court. The affidavit did not state the facts upon which affiant’s belief is based or the facts upon which the belief of affiant’s informant was based or facts showing the credibility of affiant’s informant.
Such was the case in Giordenello v. United States, 357 U.S. 480, 78 S.Ct. 1245, 2 L.Ed.2d 1503, wherein it was held that the complaint was insufficient and that the warrant of arrest used in the federal prosecution was therefore illegal. Until the decision in Aguilar, supra, the rule in Gior-denello had not been applied to state warrants. In Aguilar, the Supreme Court made it clear that the rule in Giordenello was based upon the Fourth Amendment to the Federal Constitution and not upon the Court’s supervisory powers.
This being true, I have concluded that the affidavit upon which the arrest warrant is based does not meet the constitutional requirements set forth in Aguilar and Gior-denello, and the arrest and incident search were unlawful. It should be clearly understood that in my view, such a holding would apply only to those cases in which the fruits gained in the search were admitted into evidence at the trial and the sufficiency of the affidavit of the arrest or the search warrant was challenged in the trial court and in this Court, or the constitutional question is otherwise preserved for review. See also Etchieson v. Texas, 84 S.Ct. 1932, wherein the judgment of this Court in Etchieson v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 372 S.W.2d 690, was vacated by a per curiam opinion citing Aguilar v. Texas, supra.
On Remand from United States Supreme Court.
MORRISON, Judge.
The offense is possession of marihuana; the punishment, five years.
On original submission we affirmed this conviction. We stayed the issuance of the mandate, and the opinions are not yet reported.
On writ of certiorari, the United States Supreme Court, in a Per Curiam opinion citing Giordenello v. United States, 357 U.S. 480, 78 S.Ct. 1245, 2 L.Ed.2d 1503 and Aguilar v. State of Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723, reversed the judgment of this Court affirming the conviction, and the case was remanded for proceedings not inconsistent with the opinion of the Supreme Court. Barnes v. Texas, 380 U.S. 253, 85 S.Ct. 942, 13 L.Ed.2d 818, March 8, 1965.
The holding of the Supreme Court of the United States requires that the conviction be reversed.
The judgment is reversed, and the cause is remanded.