Court Opinion

ID: 9514986
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:52:59.598448+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:23.548456
License: Public Domain

KONENKAMP, Justice
(concurring specially).
[¶ 43.] I concur with the Court’s opinion. I write specially to identify the structure of the tests to be used and the standards of review to be employed in deciding whether the independent source exception to the exclusionary rule should apply when an illegal search preceded a warranted search. The test has three elements, each of which must be addressed: (1) the warrant affidavit, purged of any information gained through the initial, illegal search, must contain sufficient facts to constitute probable cause for the issuance of the warrant; (2) the decision to seek the warrant must not have been prompted by what was seen during the initial, illegal search; and (3) any information obtained during the illegal search and presented to the issuing judge must not have affected the decision to issue the warrant. See generally Murray v. United States, 487 U.S. 533, 108 S.Ct. 2529, 101 L.Ed.2d 472 (1988); United States v. Restrepo, 966 F.2d 964, 966 (5th Cir.1992).
[¶ 44.] Although the first element invokes a legal question, our review is ordinarily highly deferential. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 236, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2331, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). In the usual case, we review challenges to the sufficiency of a warrant by looking at the totality of the circumstances to decide if there was at least a “substantial basis” for the issuing judge’s finding of probable cause. Id. at 238-39, 103 S.Ct. at 2332 (citations omitted). Our inquiry is whether the information provided to the judge was sufficient for a “common sense” decision that there was a “fair probability” the evidence would be found on the person or at the place to be searched. Id. Furthermore, we review the issuing judge’s probable cause decision to grant a search warrant independently of the conclusion reached by the suppression hearing court. State v. Jackson, 2000 SD 113, ¶ 8, 616 N.W.2d 412, 416 (citations omitted). “[I]n a doubtful or marginal case a search under a warrant may be sustainable where without one it would fall.” See United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 106, 85 S.Ct. 741, 744, 13 L.Ed.2d 684 (1965). However, in a case like this one, involving an illegal prior search, the deferential, substantial basis standard of review is inapplicable when the issuing judge never considered the warrant affidavit purged of the tainted information. Restrepo, 966 F.2d at 971 n. 18.
[¶ 45.] The second element — inquiring whether information gained in the illegal search prompted the officers to seek a *722warrant — raises a factual question, discerned from the subjective intent of the officers. Motivation must be inferred from the totality of the facts and circumstances. The Restrepo decision provides useful guidance for making this determination: “the [trial] court might wish to consider such items as the precise nature of the information acquired during the illegal search ... [and] the relative probative import of this information compared to all other information known to the officers .... ” 966 F.2d at 972. The question is the “actual motivation or intention of the officers in the particular case,” a subjective rather than an objective test. Wayne R. LaFave, 5 Search & Seizure § 11.4(f) at 300 (3d ed.1996).
[¶ 46.] Here, the circuit court did not specifically address the subjective question whether the decision to seek the warrant was prompted by what was seen during the initial, illegal entry. Murray, 487 U.S. at 542, 108 S.Ct. at 2536 (emphasis added). Were the police so prompted, or not? If the court were convinced that the officers were so prompted, the results of the second, warranted search would be inadmissible. Since the court did not explicitly answer this question, we would ordinarily remand for further findings. See Restrepo, 966 F.2d at 972; U.S. v. Bosse, 898 F.2d 113, 116 (9thCir.1990) (remanding to determine effect of illegal entry and search on the officers’ decision to seek warrant). In a similar case, the North Dakota Supreme Court likewise remanded to the trial court the question of motivation. See State v. Winkler, 552 N.W.2d 347, 354 (N.D.1996). As the United States Supreme Court said in Murray, “it is the function of the [trial court], rather than the [appeals court], to determine the facts[J” 487 U.S. at 543, 108 S.Ct. at 2536. In this unique instance, however, the trial court’s findings obliquely disposed of this question, though not the way the trial court intended.
[¶ 47.] On the third element, the question is not whether any illegally obtained information actually affected the decision of the particular judge who issued the warrant; the question is whether the information presented, with the illegally obtained material excised, was objectively sufficient to establish probable cause. See Restrepo, 966 F.2d at 969-70. As the Third Circuit explained in U.S. v. Herrold,
the Court’s use of “affect” in Murray must be understood to signify affect in a substantive manner. Thus, the fact that an application for a warrant contains information obtained through an unlawful entry does not per force indicate that the improper information “affected” the [issuing judge’s] decision to issue the warrant and thereby vitiate the applicability of the independent source doctrine. Rather, if the application contains probable cause apart from the improper information, then the warrant is lawful and the independent source doctrine applies, providing that the officers were not prompted to obtain the warrant by what they observed during the initial entry.
962 F.2d 1131, 1141-42 (3rd Cir.1992). Thus, in cases where the tainted information is contained in the warrant affidavit, the first and third elements coincide.
[¶ 48.] Lastly, on the' question of exigent circumstances, the trial court found that safety concerns about the explosive and toxic dangers of chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine were not sufficient reasons to justify Sergeant Mundt’s decision to open the shed door and look inside. This was a question of law. State v. Sleep, 1999 SD 19, ¶ 6, 590 N.W.2d 235, 237. The ruling was not appealed. Nonetheless, it is important to point out for future decisions that safety *723factors are a valid consideration in determining whether exigent circumstances exist. See Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 392-93, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 2413, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978); Michigan v. Tyler, 436 U.S. 499, 509-10, 98 S.Ct. 1942, 1950, 56 L.Ed.2d 486 (1978). The Eighth Circuit recently emphasized that the “potential hazards of methamphetamine manufacture are well documented, and numerous cases have upheld limited warrantless searches by police officers who had probable cause to believe they had uncovered an on-going methamphetamine manufacturing operation.” United States v. Walsh, 299 F.3d 729, 734 (8th Cir.2002) (citations omitted).