Court Opinion

ID: 9577162
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:32:13.96124+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:20:02.359161
License: Public Domain

WRIGHT, C. J., Concurring and Dissenting.
I concur with the majority to the extent that they hold that the arresting officer properly seized the vehicle which had been used by petitioner as an instrumentality of the alleged crime. There can be no question that the vehicle is itself evidence of the commission of the crime within the meaning of People v. Teale (1969) 70 Cal.2d 497 [75 Cal.Rptr. 172, 450 P.2d 564]. Although it was parked on a public street and not within petitioner’s immediate control at the time *313of his arrest (see Chimel v. California (1969) 395 U.S. 752 [23 L.Ed.2d 685, 89 S.Ct. 2034]), the officer committed no trespass when he observed it in plain view and seized possession. (See People v. Block (1971) 6 Cal.3d 239, 243 [103 Cal.Rptr. 281, 499 P.2d 961].) Speculation as to the meanings to be given to the various views expressed in Coolidge v. New Hampshire (1971) 403 U.S. 443 [29 L.Ed.2d 564, 91 S.Ct. 2022] fails to support a conclusion that a majority of the members of the high court would hold the seizure in the instant case to infringe the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, and certainly I cannot reach that conclusion.
I cannot, however, agree with the majority holding which requires the exclusion of the tape-recorded conversation between petitioner and his wife. It is clear that there is no statutory compulsion of exclusion; to the contrary, the Legislature by its failure to proscribe the eavesdropping upon or recording of prisoner-spouse communications while proscribing such activities with respect to other specified prisoner communications (Pen. Code, § 636) has specifically excluded prisoner-spouse communications from the protected class. There is likewise no sufficient constitutional ground upon which we could or should depart from the well-established rule that a prisoner in custody has no reasonable expectation of privacy. I agree with the views expressed by Sullivan, J. in his dissenting opinion insofar as they relate to the taped recordings.
As the motion to suppress evidence was properly denied in its entirety. I would deny the writ.
McComb, J., concurred.