Court Opinion

ID: 9618701
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:15:51.557151+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:31.398922
License: Public Domain

*231Ruffin, Judge,
dissenting.
This case presents another instance of the on-going saga regarding the validity of an affidavit supporting a search warrant whereby the court is to apply the “totality of the circumstances” analysis consistent with Illinois v. Gates, 462 U. S. 213 (103 SC 2317, 76 LE2d 527) (1983) and adopted by our Supreme Court in State v. Stephens, 252 Ga. 181 (311 SE2d 823) (1984). Interestingly, but not unusually, both the majority and the dissent of Presiding Judge McMurrary utilize a “common sense” approach with divergent results. While I have no disagreement with the analysis of either, I believe the majority portends rather precarious consequences, hence I write separately.
Initially, I believe it is appropriate to clarify the duty of the reviewing court. That duty “is simply to ensure that the magistrate has a substantial basis for concluding that probable cause existed.” Davis v. State, 214 Ga. App. 36, 37 (447 SE2d 68) (1994). Moreover, since our Supreme Court “has cautioned attesting officers and magistrates to ‘make every effort to see that supporting affidavits reflect the maximum indication of reliability[,] . . .’ [cit.]” Gary v. State, 262 Ga. 573, 577 (422 SE2d 426) (1992), any analysis by the reviewing court should reflect this admonition. Further, reviewing courts must be ever mindful “that Gates [is to] be considered as the outer limit of probable cause.” Stephens, supra at 184.
In determining what was before the magistrate in this case, even a cursory reading of the affidavit reveals a pattern of verbiage couched in conclusions. “Affiant was contacted by a concerned citizen. . . . This concerned citizen was in the [residence]. . . . [T]he concerned citizen observed 30 to 35 marijuana plants. . . . This concerned citizen advises that it knows Roy Davis sells marijuana. . . . The concerned citizen . . . knows what marijuana looks like. . . . This concerned citizen is in good standing in the community, [the owner of] its own business and . . . several pieces of property. . . . The concerned citizen has nothing to gain. ...”
If the “totality of the circumstances” doctrine means anything, it means scrutinizing the affidavit for what it does not contain as well as for what it does contain. What it does not contain are the specifics which could guide a neutral and detached magistrate; the specifics which remove the guesswork from consideration; the specifics which give life and vitality to an affidavit inundated with conclusions. In this case, the affidavit should have included such specifics as how and why the affiant was contacted by the informant; under what circumstances the informant was in Davis’s residence; how did the informant recognize marijuana and how did he or she happen to observe the plants growing in Davis’s residence; how did the informant know that Davis was selling marijuana from his residence; how did the affiant know the informant was a concerned citizen in good standing who *232owned a business and other property. These are the kinds of specifics required for an affidavit supporting a search warrant, especially in a case like this where there is absolutely no indication the affiant ever met the informant in person or had more than a single conversation with him. See Davis, supra at 37.
Decided March 17, 1995
Reconsideration denied March 31, 1995
W. Glenn Thomas, Jr., District Attorney, C. Keith Higgins, Assistant District Attorney, for appellant.
Lane & Crowe, Grayson P. Lane, for appellees.
Moreover, the affidavit contains verbiage which is susceptible to other, less favorable inferences than those relied on by the majority. Could the informant’s familiarity with Davis have been the result of some common criminal enterprise? Is property and business ownership within the exclusive domain of upstanding, honest citizens? While “ ‘[t]his court has always given the concerned citizen informer a preferred status insofar as testing the credibility of his information[,] . . . before an anonymous tipster can be elevated to the status of concerned citizen, thereby gaining entitlement to the preferred status regarding credibility concomitant with that title, there must be placed before the magistrate facts from which it can be concluded that the anonymous tipster is, in fact, a concerned citizen.’ ” Id. at 36.
The complete lack of specificity in the affidavit relegated the affidavit and the accompanying warrant to that of a general warrant, proscribed by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section I, Paragraph XIII of the Georgia Constitution. Accordingly, I would affirm the trial court.
I am authorized to state that Judges Johnson and Blackburn join in this dissent.