Court Opinion

ID: 9664503
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:19:59.507805+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:06.727415
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
Appellee based his motion to suppress upon three grounds: (1) That the search warrant expressed the home to be searched was 13 Westview Road but the search actually took place at 13 West View Drive; (2) That there lacked probable cause for the search warrant to be issued; and (3) That the search was entrapment per se.1
Below, the State presented no testimony and simply relied upon the face of Officer Wibben's affidavit in support of the search warrant and the face of the search warrant itself.
Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law were submitted by the State; Appellee filed objections to the State’s said Proposed Findings and Conclusions.
In my opinion, this Court must decide if the search warrant, as issued, was based upon probable cause contained in Officer Wibben’s affidavit; and, secondly, decide what constraints should exist for “anticipatory search warrants” in South Dakota. It appears that the South Dakota Supreme Court is being given an initial opportunity to review the “controlled delivery” of contraband and the issuance of an “anticipatory search warrant.”
These “anticipatory search warrants” are a new breed of cat for South Dakota but as the extensive string cite portrays in the majority opinion, they are accepted by many respectable authorities. If I have read the cases correctly, there is reputable authority to the contrary, said authorities being recited in Garcia, at 702. There appears to be division among the Circuits in the United States Courts of Appeal. Of course, we have the right to guarantee to our citizens, in South Dakota, more protection under the South Dakota State Constitution than our citizens might have under the United States Constitution. State v. Opperman, 89 S.D. 25, 228 N.W.2d 152 (1975). So which direction do we fly? Towards greater protection under Opperman? Towards Garcia and those who favor the constitutionality of the “anticipato*792ry warrant?” Or towards those authorities which would cast aside “anticipatory warrants” for the reason that they are viola-tive of the Fourth Amendment?
Eight years ago, in State v. Pettis, 333 N.W.2d 717 (S.D.1983), this Court decried the use of and sale of narcotics. We there expressed:
Selling drugs is a harsh and unsavory business. Many drug dealers make handsome profits from their endeavors. Drug abuse has devastated countless American youth to include young South Dakotans. Drugs are a peril to our society.
Justice Dunn quoted this language, written by this Author, in his dissent in State v. Weiker, 342 N.W.2d 7 (S.D.1983). The sale and use of narcotics causes the greatest scourge on our society today and reaches down into our schools to destroy our most precious asset, the children. Spearfish, South Dakota, happens to be the site of Black Hills State University. My Supreme Court District encompasses the Black Hills. Old timers call our Black Hills the “Northern Hills,” the “Central Hills,” and the “Southern Hills.” Drug trafficking has been prevalent and historic in the “Northern Hills” for at least two decades in the cities of Lead,2 Sturgis, Spearfish and Deadwood. Historic Deadwood was the scene of an early gold rush. Opiate dens were harbored under the streets of historic Deadwood.3 They are past history but they reflect an early evil influence of drugs in the Northern Hills. As I write this, I think of the thousands of youth who are destroyed by drugs in this nation and the hundreds who have become addicted in our Northern Hills. Drug traffickers seem attracted to this area and the above mentioned cities are close in proximity to Spearfish, South Dakota, the site of Black Hills State University.
Therefore, to help rid this scourge, I travel down the Garcia road with the author, Justice Sabers, and the other distinguished Justices of this Court, who have likewise joined his writing. This is not a geographic place or the time for an extension of Opperman. In doing so, I maintain that the “anticipatory warrants” are an effective tool to fight criminal activity and to also protect Fourth Amendment rights to individuals.
Obviously, there must be limitations when you postulate as to what will transpire in the future; in an application of the law in “anticipatory warrants,” you are on shaky ground because you do not know what the future shall unfold. There is a potential for abuse in “anticipatory warrants.”

. Entrapment was not presented as an issue on appeal. Therefore it is not before us.

. Lead is situated atop of the "Homestake Lode," progenitor of the Homestake Gold Mine, the largest gold mine on the North American Continent.

. Tourists now view these as "tours.”