Court Opinion

ID: 9558338
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:07:29.101269+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:08:48.132438
License: Public Domain

BROWN, J., Concurring.
This straightforward case has been needlessly complicated by the failure to distinguish between two closely related, yet analytically distinct, legal doctrines—the independent source doctrine and the inevitable discovery doctrine. This confusion has dogged the case from the outset. At the hearing on the initial suppression motion, petitioner argued that the search warrant was not an “independent source” for the evidence found in his motel room because the decision to seek the warrant was based on the allegedly unlawful entry of District Attorney Investigator Brian Moore. Notwithstanding this argument, the trial court deemed this “a classic case . . . of an inevitable discovery,” observing “[i]t’s probably the clearest case of inevitable discovery that I have seen in a motion.” The confusion has persisted even in this court, where the Attorney General has chosen to “refer to the doctrines interchangeably.”
The United States Supreme Court has described the relationship between the two doctrines as follows: “The independent source doctrine allows admission of evidence that has been discovered by means wholly independent of any constitutional violation. That doctrine, although closely related to the inevitable discovery doctrine, does not apply here; [the defendant’s] statements to [a police detective] indeed led police to the [evidence in question], but that is not the whole story. The independent source doctrine teaches us that the interest of society in deterring unlawful police conduct and the public interest in having juries receive all probative evidence of a crime are properly balanced by putting the police in the same, not a worse, position that they would have been in if no police error or misconduct had occurred. [Citations.] When the challenged evidence has an independent source, exclusion of such evidence would put the police in a worse position than they would have been in absent any error or violation. There is a functional similarity between these two doctrines in that exclusion of evidence that would inevitably have been discovered would also put the government in a worse position, because the police would have obtained that evidence if no misconduct had taken place. Thus, while the independent *394source exception would not justify admission of evidence in this case, its rationale is wholly consistent with and justifies our adoption of the ultimate or inevitable discovery exception to the exclusionary rule.” (Nix v. Williams (1984) 467 U.S. 431, 443-444 [104 S.Ct. 2501, 2508-2509, 81 L.Ed.2d 377], fn. omitted, original italics; see also Murray v. United States (1988) 487 U.S. 533, 539 [108 S.Ct. 2529, 2534, 101 L.Ed.2d 472] [“The inevitable discovery doctrine, with its distinct requirements, is in reality an extrapolation from the independent source doctrine: Since the tainted evidence would be admissible if in fact discovered through an independent source, it should be admissible if it inevitably would have been discovered.” (Original italics.)].)
In the second portion of its analysis, the majority applies the independent source doctrine, concluding that “[e]ven if we were to assume that investigator Moore illegally seized petitioner’s motel room when he told motel manager Proctor not to let anyone enter it without law enforcement permission, the rifle found in the room was not the ‘fruit’ of that seizure and therefore need not have been suppressed, because after the entry the police utilized an ‘independent source’ to seize the rifle: a search warrant issued on the basis of facts unrelated to Moore’s conduct.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 389.) In my view, the majority’s analysis is incomplete because it does not definitively resolve a vigorously disputed factual issue—namely, whether the search warrant was itself tainted by investigator Moore’s subsequent entry into the motel room, which petitioner also contends was unlawful. (See id. at pp. 391-392.) Nor does it resolve petitioner’s claim that the warrant was invalid because material facts were recklessly or intentionally omitted from the warrant affidavit. (See id. at p. 379, fn. 1.) The search warrant cannot be deemed an “independent source” vitiating the initial seizure unless it was obtained “by means wholly independent of any constitutional violation.” (Nix v. Williams, supra, 467 U.S. at p. 443 [104 S.Ct. at p. 2508], italics added.) Two wrongs do not make a right.
That having been said, I would hasten to add that we need not tackle the thorny factual questions necessary to resolve the case under the independent source doctrine. Instead, we should resolve the case under the inevitable discovery doctrine, as to which the pertinent facts are undisputed. From the time investigator Moore first contacted the motel manager to the time petitioner’s motel room tenancy expired, a period of less than 24 hours, petitioner was continuously in custody. The gun case remained in his motel room in plain view. The motel manager testified, without contradiction, that it was the motel’s policy to contact the authorities if any weapons were found after the expiration of a motel room tenancy and that motel officials would have done so in this case. Moreover, she testified, again without contradiction, that she would have permitted the authorities to search the *395room later in the day. Such a search, conducted after the expiration of the tenancy, would, of course, have been lawful. (See Abel v. United States (1960) 362 U.S. 217, 241 [80 S.Ct. 683, 698, 4 L.Ed.2d 668].) Thus, regardless of whether the initial seizure and the subsequent entry of petitioner’s motel room were lawful, issues as to which I express no opinion, the evidence would inevitably have been discovered, either as a result of motel officials contacting the authorities or as a result of a lawful search of the motel room.
In declining to apply the inevitable discovery doctrine, the Court of Appeal noted that petitioner’s father might have been able to “clean[] out the room at his son’s behest had the police not seized it.” The fact that petitioner might have been able to arrange to have the evidence removed is simply irrelevant. As the majority properly holds, there is no constitutional right to destroy evidence. (See maj. opn., ante, at pp. 389-390.)
Since the evidence in question was admissible under the inevitable discovery exception to the exclusionary rule, petitioner’s trial counsel cannot be faulted for failing to challenge the seizure of the motel room. On this basis, I concur in the majority’s holding.
On April 1, 1998, the opinion was modified to read as printed above.