Court Opinion

ID: 9459105
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:10:42.497787+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:01.409251
License: Public Domain

BRIGHT and ROSS, Circuit Judges
(concurring).
Except for the reservation noted below, we join the majority opinion. Taking into account the credibility of the informer, the details furnished by the informer, and the corroboration of some of those details by an FBI agent, we think the affidavit furnished “probable cause” for the issuance of the warrant. Under these circumstances, the magistrate here would know that “he [was] relying on something more substantial than a casual rumor circulating in the underworld. . . .” Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 416, 89 S.Ct. at 589 (1968). The affidavit need only establish the probability of criminal activity and the secreting of evidence on specific premises; proof beyond a reasonable doubt is not required. United States v. Smith, 462 F.2d 456, 460 (8th Cir. 1972), and cases cited therein.
We do not agree with the majority’s view that the Harris1 opinion is in conflict with the Spinelli 2 case. Rather, we deem the facts in those cases distinguishable and the opinions reconcilable.
In Harris, the plurality opinion of the Chief Justice distinguished the facts from those in Spinelli on the ground that the warrant in Harris was found valid because the informant’s tip “recount [ed] personal and recent observations by an unidentified informant of criminal activity,” thus showing that the information had been gained in a reliable manner. These facts served to distinguish the *816tip in Harris from that held insufficient in Spinelli, in which the affidavit failed to explain how the informant came by his information, Spinel-li, supra, 393 U.S. at 416, 89 S.Ct. 584. United States v. Harris, 403 U.S. at 579, 91 S.Ct. 2075. [United States v. Smith, supra, 462 F.2d at 460 n. 3.]

. United States v. Harris, 403 U.S. 573, 91 S.Ct. 2075, 29 L.Ed.2d 723 (1971).

. Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1968).