Court Opinion

ID: 9761430
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:42:49.937313+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:23.708395
License: Public Domain

DONNELLY, Chief Justice,
concurring in result.
If I may be indulged the following observations:
(1) In Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 6 S.Ct. 524, 29 L.Ed. 746 (1886), and Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 34 S.Ct. 341, 58 L.Ed. 652 (1914), the United States Supreme Court articulated The Exclusionary Rule (which holds that evidence obtained by illegal search is not admissible at trial when timely objection is made).
(2) In State v. Owens, 302 Mo. 348, 259 S.W. 100 (banc 1924), The Exclusionary Rule was adopted in Missouri.
(3) In Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961), the Court sought to make The Exclusionary Rule binding on the States.
(4) A rationale for The Exclusionary Rule has proved elusive. See Schlesinger and Wilson, Property, Privacy and Deterrence: The Exclusionary Rule in Search of a Rationale, 18 Duq.L.Rev. 225 (1980). To borrow from Irvine v. California, 347 U.S. 128, 136, 74 S.Ct. 381, 385, 98 L.Ed. 561 (1954):
“Rejection of the evidence does nothing to punish the wrong-doing official, while it may, and likely will, release the wrongdoing defendant. It deprives society of its remedy against one lawbreaker because he has been pursued by another. It protects one against whom incriminating evidence is discovered, but does nothing to protect innocent persons who are the victims of illegal but fruitless searches.”
(5) In Owens, supra, this Court expressed the view that The Exclusionary Rule was the only method available by which a citizen could be assured the protection of the Constitution.
(6) We now know that the Owens view is no longer valid. In Owen v. City of Independence, 445 U.S. 622, 100 S.Ct. 1398, 63 L.Ed.2d 673 (1980), the Court held that municipalities sued for damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for constitutional violations are not entitled to qualified immunity based on good faith of their officials.
(7) In Shapiro v. Columbia Union National Bank & Trust Co., 576 S.W.2d 310 (Mo. banc 1978), this Court held that § 1983 claims are cognizable in the State courts of Missouri.
(8) In these circumstances, a remedy, other than application of The Exclusionary Rule, exists in Missouri by which a person injured can obtain redress for a constitutional violation.
(9) The purpose of the The Exclusionary Rule was to deter violations of rights to privacy — it does not appear in the United States Constitution.
Accordingly, I would overrule the holding in Owens, supra, wash our hands of The Exclusionary Rule, and turn to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for deterrence of violations of rights to privacy. See Seng. Municipal Liability for Police Misconduct, 51 Miss.L.J. 1 (1980); Baskin v. Parker, 588 F.2d 965 (5th Cir. 1979); Sexton v. Gibbs, 327 F.Supp. 134 (N.D.Tex.1970), aff’d, 446 F.2d 904 (5th Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 1062, 92 S.Ct. 733, 30 L.Ed.2d 751 (1972).
I concur in the result.