Court Opinion

ID: 9659650
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:51:35.837194+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:10.402403
License: Public Domain

John I. Purtle, Justice, dissenting. I dissent from the majority opinion on principle as well as law. I am saddened because I see this opinion as a repudiation of more than 100 years of precedent and the destruction of parts of the Arkansas and United States Constitutions. Additionally the opinion repeals a portion of our rules of criminal procedure and possibly some statutory law as well. I have never felt that this court is bound by the opinions of the United States Supreme Court in matters where our Constitution and laws are more protective of individual rights than are those of the United States. I have been under the impression that the other members of this court did not always feel bound by decisions of the federal courts. Rector v. State, 280 Ark. 385, 659 S.W.2d 168(1983). The affidavit for the search warrant in this case was obtained upon the application of an officer who stated that his information was obtained from a reliable informant who had recently purchased cocaine from the appellant. At the suppression hearing testimony revealed that the so-called reliable informant had not purchased from the appellant at all but had been told by some third party that he had purchased from the appellant. The officer applying for the warrant knew that the informant had not made the purchase. I believe the affidavit was false in that respect. There was absolutely no reason for the affiant to rely on information from an unknown and unproven informant. It may well have been a complete fabrication. Neither the officers nor the court had any known reason to rely on this hearsay upon hearsay information. This is a step toward the return of Star Chamber proceedings which I had previously thought to have been renounced by this nation. Perhaps I am in error. The majority clearly holds that the judge evidently relied upon the unidentified third party. I am saddened by this departure by the majority of this court. It is my opinion that had the issuing judge been told the truth he would have refused to issue the warrant. The majority seems to me to go far beyond the Leon holding. Another glaring falsity in the statement was that the informant (who was not the informant at all) disclosed the information with knowledge of “the penal implications” of her statement. There was no culpatory or penal information at all because the informant had been granted immunity (she was never even charged for her drug violations) and what she said implicated other people, not herself. When it is considered that this affidavit was prepared by the prosecuting attorney’s staff with cooperation of supervising police officers, I conclude that it was not even in “good faith.” No doubt it was a good faith effort to search appellant’s house as are all such efforts of law enforcement officials. Even if some activities were not in good faith, it is unlikely that officers would admit it. The “general search” which the Fourth Amendment sought to destroy seems to me to have now been reinstated. Henceforth officers will no doubt rely in “good faith” upon the most rank hearsay, suspicion or even complete lies and expect the approval of this court. I cannot end this dissent without referring to A.R.Cr.P. Rule 13.1(b) which states in part: “If an affidavit or testimony is based in whole or in part on hearsay, the affiant or witness shall set forth particular facts bearing on the informant’s reliability and shall disclose, as far as practicable, the means by which the information was obtained.” This rule was clearly violated. For these reasons and many more, I would reverse and remand.