Court Opinion

ID: 9681659
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:54:01.171669+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:35.193276
License: Public Domain

SEILER, Presiding Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. In my opinion, Caffey has sustained the burden of demonstrating that the conduct of his assigned trial counsel deprived him of his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. I have reference to the failure to challenge the validity of the search warrant. Suppression of the seized bottle of cocaine was the only effective defense Caffey had. Under our adversary system, it was the duty of defense counsel to defend his client, whether innocent or guilty, and if he could cripple or destroy the state’s case by suppressing the seized evidence, then as a part of defendant’s constitutional guarantee of effective assistance of counsel, defendant was entitled to representation which did not overlook this opportunity.
As I understand the facts here, all the magistrate had before him was the affidavit of the informer, attached to the affidavit of the prosecuting attorney, to the effect that sometime earlier, perhaps as much as 120 days earlier, Caffey had told the informer he (Caffey) had a bottle of cocaine in his safe deposit box. It was on this showing alone that the magistrate had to determine whether there was probable cause within the meaning of the state and federal constitutions.
The proposed opinion does not reach this point, but if reached, it would be most doubtful if the search warrant were valid. The state conceded in oral argument it had been unable to find any case upholding probable cause where there was such a great lapse of time between the alleged offense and the date of the affidavit. The authorities and reasoning on the point are all to the contrary. See the annotation in 162 ALR 1406, published in 1946 and the superseding annotation in 100 ALR2d 525, published in 1965.
As I understand it, the magistrate did not have before him the information that the bank records showed no one had entered the box since the preceding Decern-*666ber. No such evidence was adduced at the time the warrant was issued. The validity of the search warrant cannot be determined on information subsequently discovered which would have supported it, but which was unknown to and hence not considered by the magistrate in determining whether probable cause had been shown him for the issuance of the warrant. It was good or bad when issued, In re Search Warrant of Property at Apartment No. 7 (Mo.Sup.) 369 S.W.2d 155, 158, but counsel overlooked this.
This ground of challenge to the validity of the search warrant is nothing new. It is part of probable cause, which is basic to any search warrant. The proposed opinion, respectfully submitted, overstates when it implies “universal knowledge of the law” would be required, or the legal acumen of a Wigmore, Cardozo, or Emory Buckner, to think of it. The legal proposition involved is contained in any standard reference on searches and seizures and it was not necessary to wait for the annotation in 100 ALR2d 525 to learn about it.
In Brizendine v. Swenson (W.D.Mo.) 302 F.Supp. 1011, the court held that where defense counsel was not aware of Chapter 552 dealing with criminal proceedings involving mental illness or of defendant’s right to an independent psychiatric examination at state expense, the defendant had been deprived of his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. I see no difference in principle here, where defense counsel candidly stated he simply did not think of filing a motion to suppress. Either way, the effect on the defendant is the same: through ineffective assistance of counsel, he loses the defense, or to use the apt language quoted in the majority opinion from Bruce v. United States, 126 U.S.App.D.C. 336, 379 F.2d 113, 117, there has been “blotted out the essence of a substantial defense”.
We should vacate this judgment and sentence and send this case back for a new trial.