Court Opinion

ID: 9566020
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:32:02.288961+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:14.481048
License: Public Domain

Smith, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. In my view once a person is stopped in an airport based on conformity with a “drug courier profile,” that person may legally be detained only as long as it takes to produce proper identification. Once this is done (as in this case), any further badgering by narcotics agents exceeds the permissible scope of a Terry stop and becomes an illegal detention if not supported by probable cause. “Agent Markonni’s questioning should have ended when Smith’s driver’s license and ticket matched the name Smith provided to the agent, and he gave his reason for being in Fort Lauderdale . . . along with his denial that he was transporting illegal drugs. The agent’s request that Smith submit to a search of his person was clearly unauthorized.” State v. Smith, 164 Ga. App. 142, 146 (296 SE2d 141) (1982). Markonni’s request was just as clearly unauthorized in this case. I would reverse the trial court’s denial of the motion to suppress on this ground.