Court Opinion

ID: 9585260
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:58:21.99799+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:37:11.353830
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
(concurring). This case comes before this court on certification from the court of appeals to settle a conflict in published opinions of the court of appeals regarding the adoption, for the purposes of the Wisconsin Constitu*455tion, of the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule announced in United States v. Leon, 104 S. Ct. 3405 (1984). See State v. Collins, 122 Wis. 2d 320, 327, 363 N.W.2d 229 (Ct. App. 1984), adopting a good faith exception to the exclusionary rule, and State v. Grawien, 123 Wis. 2d 428, 367 N.W.2d 816 (Ct. App. 1985), refusing to adopt the good faith exception.
Because the Wisconsin exclusionary rule is "based upon the Wisconsin Constitution," majority opinion at page 453, independent of an exclusionary rule imposed on the states by the federal Constitution, Hoyer v. State, 180 Wis. 407, 415, 193 N.W. 89 (1923), the parties agree that absent our adopting a good faith exception to the Wisconsin exclusionary rule, the circuit court's suppression order must be affirmed.
I agree with the majority's conclusion that "this case is not a proper vehicle for deciding whether to adopt a good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule." At page 454. This case involves a John Doe judge (magistrate) who has no authority to issue material witness warrants. See State v. Brady, 118 Wis. 2d 154, 345 N.W.2d 533 (Ct. App. 1984). By contrast, in Leon the magistrate had authority to issue warrants but the warrant violated the probable cause requirement of the fourth amendment. In Massachusetts v. Sheppard, 104 S. Ct. 3424 (1984), the United States Supreme Court applied the good faith exception to a warrant that had a technical error in describing the evidence to be seized. It is not clear whether Leon and Sheppard apply only to cases in which the magistrate has authority to issue a warrant but there was lack of probable cause or a technical error in the warrant, or to cases such as this one in which the magistrate has no authority whatsoever to issue the warrant.
*456Because Leon does not clearly set forth the conditions under which the good faith exception is applicable and because this case involves a magistrate who has no authority to issue the warrant, this is not an appropriate case for deciding whether this court should adopt the Leon good faith exception to the exclusionary rule under art. I, sec. 11 of the Wisconsin Constitution. I would therefore affirm the suppression order of the circuit court.