Court Opinion

ID: 9696407
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:47:01.64855+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:22.043764
License: Public Domain

Gillespie, J.
Dissenting:
The nine items found in appellant’s automobile were burglar’s tools. The question is whether they were found by the officers as a result of an unreasonable and illegal *746search. If the arrest was legal, the search was legal. If appellant committed an offense in the presence of the sheriff, he had a legal right to pursue and arrest appellant and search his automobile. Appellant was arrested for reckless driving and speeding. The narrow point is whether, after appellant motioned the sheriff to drive up beside him, appellant was guilty of reckless driving when he took off in his automobile “in a cloud of smoke,” and was exceeding the speed limit in seconds after he started.
I do not find it necessary to comment on the cases cited by the majority since, in my opinion, the principles announced therein do not apply here. The sheriff testified that he was summoned to drive up beside appellant’s automobile, and that when he did so and rolled his window down appellant took off “in a cloud of smoke.”
The sheriff testified on direct examination as follows:
“Q. Let’s see now, Bob. You say you pulled up behind him. Which side did you pull up on?
“A. He was traveling northwest, and I was behind him and I pulled up even with him. He stopped, and I stopped, and I leaned over and rolled the window down, and when he saw me, he took off in a cloud of smoke.
‘ ‘ Q. And what did you do ?
“A. I took off after him.
“Q. You took off after him. Now, will you as best you can, trace his route and yours in pursuit?
“A. We went through Palmer’s Crossing, across the railroad there. I sounded my siren, and that had no effect, except maybe to accelerate him, and we came out to the By-Pass at the Beverly Theater at probably a hundred miles an hour.
On cross-examination, the Sheriff testified:
“Q. And when was the first time, Mr. Sheriff, that you were able to say that he was exceeding the speed limit?
*747“A. In a matter of seconds, and incidentally, when he took off, I sounded my siren. He knew that I wasn’t a robber.
“Q. I know that, but I just want to know when can you say that you first noticed that he was exceeding the speed limit? You were following —
“A. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, I would say that it was in ten seconds after we started he was doing better than sixty.
“Q. You had pursued him a period of about ten seconds when you noticed that he was exceeding the speed limit?
“A. Yes, sir.”
It is obvious to me that appellant was driving away before the sheriff pursued and since appellant was exceeding the speed limit in seconds he undoubtedly started off recklessly. I do not think the sheriff had to wait until appellant made a clean get away before pursuing him, and I am of the opinion that the lower court was fully justified in finding that appellant started off recklessly in the presence of the sheriff, and that his pursuit, arrest and search were legal. This was not a case where the sheriff initiated the flight of the person arrested, as was true in some of the cases cited by the majority.
While I am not here suggesting that this Court abandon the exclusionary rule of evidence in regard to searches and seizures, I believe it will be useful in placing the present case in proper perspective to call attention to the fact that Mississippi is one of a minority of the states adhering to the exclusionary rule. Neither the Constitution of the United States nor the Constitution of Mississippi require the exclusion of evidence secured in an illegal search. The Federal courts and the courts of a minority of the states have adopted the rule excluding evidence which is the product of an unreasonable and illegal search. On the other hand, a majority of the states, including New York and Massachusetts, admit the evidence notwithstanding the fact that it was secured through an illegal search. 20 Am. Jur., Evidence, Sec*748tion 394. In those states not having the exclusionary rule a civil or criminal action may be maintained against the offending officer for illegal search. They reason that public interest requires the admission of evidence which tends to prove the guilt of the accused, and that criminals should not be rewarded by the officer’s mistake.
England, whence came our legal system and where individual rights have always been jealously guarded, does not adhere to the exclusionary rule. Dean "Wigmore denounces the rule as “misplaced sentimentality.” 8 Wig-more, Evidence, 2184 (3rd Ed.).
As already stated, I am not here contending that we should abandon the exclusionary rule but I am contending for a common sense application of the Constitution in regard to searches and seizures. When a court adopts the exclusionary rule, the Constitution does not require, and the best interests of society do not permit, technical and legalistic construction as to what is an unreasonable and illegal search. In deference to the majority, I hasten to add that they do not intend a technical or legalistic application but believe that our prior decisions require the results here reached.
I also concede that the matter here under consideration is one about which reasonable minds might differ. In order to protect the innocent from unreasonable searches and seizures, it is often necessary to also protect the guilty. But a combination of the exclusionary rule with the too-liberal construction of what is an illegal search merely provides a refuge for criminals. I am not unmindful of the historical basis for the Constitutional prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures and these safeguards to individual liberty should be jealously protected by the courts; but I am concerned with the fact that all too often those who receive the constitutional protection are not those who are intended to be protected. In the-present case it is my opinion that *749our authorities do not require the finding that the search in this case was illegal.
I would admit the evidence and affirm the case. I do not condemn the sheriff but would commend him for risking his life in the line of duty.
McElroy and Jones, JJ., join in this dissent.
Rodger, J.,
Separate Opinion:
I wrote the opinion for the majority of the Court in this case, but in view of the dissenting opinion, I want to point out, not as a part of the majority opinion but my personal opinion, that there is another reason why the testimony of the search of the automobile was unlawful. If by any chance and by a stretch of the imagination the arrest of the defendant was lawful and it was the duty of the officer to search the possessions of the defendant as a part of, and as an incident to, the arrest, that right and duty subsided and disappeared when the officers locked the automobile without searching it, and took the defendant away from the scene of the arrest and to jail, where he was safely incarcerated. The officers could not then return to the scene of the arrest and search the automobile without a search warrant, because the arrest had been completed, the defendant was in jail, and a search of his possessions could not then be an incident to an arrest. Millette v. State, 167 Miss. 172, 148 So. 788; Lancaster v. State, 188 Miss. 374, 195 So. 320; Page v. State, 208 Miss. 347, 44 So. 2d 459; Martin v. State, 217 Miss. 506, 64 So. 2d 629.
I realize that this point was not raised in the lower court, but this Court said in Brooks v. State, 209 Miss. 150, 46 So. 2d 94. “Errors affecting fundamental rights are exceptions to the rule that questions not raised in the trial court cannot be raised for the first time on appeal. ’ ’ I would also point out that fundamental rights are not mere court procedures, but, as was said in the Brooks case, supra, ‘ ‘ Constitutional rights * * * rise above mere *750rules of procedure”. Fundamental rights are inalienable rights that existed before the Constitution was written, and with which men have been endowed from the beginning of time. The touchstone of freedom is the right to live unmolested, and, as we say colloquially, “the right to he let alone”.