U.S. v. Carpenter

Decision Date09 March 2004
Docket NumberNo. 01-5370.,No. 01-5446.,No. 01-5368.,01-5368.,01-5370.,01-5446.
Citation360 F.3d 591
PartiesUNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant, v. Lonnie D. CARPENTER (01-5368) and Sheila J. Carpenter (01-5370), Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Nikki C. Pierce, (argued and briefed) Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, Greeneville, Tennessee, for Defendant-Appellants Cross-Appellee Sheila J. Carpenter in 01-5370, 01-5446.

Michael E. Winck, (argued and briefed), ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Knoxville, Tennessee, Dan R. Smith, ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Chattonooga, Tennessee, for Plaintiff-Appellee Cross-Appellant in 01-5368, 01-5370 and 01-5446.

Lonnie D. Carpenter, Rogersville, (briefed), Rogersville, Tennessee, Pro Se in 01-5368, 01-5446.

Before: BOGGS, Chief Judge; MARTIN, SILER, BATCHELDER, DAUGHTREY, MOORE, COLE, CLAY, GILMAN, GIBBONS, ROGERS, SUTTON, and COOK, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

SILER, Circuit Judge.

Defendants Lonnie D. and Sheila J. Carpenter were convicted of manufacturing marijuana. One of the issues that they raised on appeal was a claim that the district court erred in failing to suppress the evidence of their illegal activity. The government cross-appealed the district court's ruling that limited the amount of the Carpenters' land subject to forfeiture. A divided panel of this court affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded the case for further proceedings. United States v. Carpenter, 317 F.3d 618 (6th Cir.2003).

Rehearing en banc was subsequently granted in order to consider a question regarding the application of United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 922, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984), that is, whether a search conducted pursuant to an invalid warrant may be saved under the "good-faith exception" on the basis that the officers had other information that was not presented to the issuing magistrate, but that would have established probable cause. We need not reach that question because we conclude that the police officers' reliance on the deficient warrant was reasonable because the information that was presented to the issuing judge was sufficient to support a good-faith belief in the warrant's validity. We therefore REINSTATE the judgment of the panel in this case, and adopt the panel opinion except for its discussion of the Leon good-faith exception, and REMAND the case to the district court for further proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND
A. Factual background

In June 1999, Police Lieutenant Robert Crumley was conducting helicopter surveillance over Hawkins County, Tennessee. He spotted patches of marijuana growing in fields approximately 900 feet away from a residence belonging to the Carpenters. In addition, he observed beaten paths leading from the back door of the residence to the marijuana patches and saw two men, who turned out to be Lonnie Carpenter and his son, walking from the patches toward the residence. Crumley relayed this information to a team of police officers on the ground.

Captain Ronnie Lawson, a member of the ground team, sought a warrant to search the residence. A state judge, satisfied that Lawson's affidavit established probable cause, issued the requested search warrant. The affidavit, which the warrant incorporated, described the location of the Carpenter residence and then set forth the following reasons (in exactly the syntax shown) why Lawson believed that evidence of criminal conduct would be found in the residence:

On June 23, 1999 at approx 12:30 pm, Helicopter Pilot Lt Bob Crumley was conducting an aerial search of Hawkins Co when he was flying over the above described property he saw numerous Marijuana Plants growing. Near the residence.

Upon information I received from Lt Crumley, there is a road connecting the above described residence to the Marijuana Plants. Having personal knowledge that Lt. Crumley is certified in the identification of Marijuana I feel there is probable cause to search the said residence and property and seize any illegal contraband found.

Armed with this warrant, police officers searched the Carpenters' residence. They seized marijuana, marijuana seeds, and other items associated with marijuana manufacturing.

B. Procedural background

In July 1999, the Carpenters were indicted for manufacturing marijuana and with employing a minor to assist them, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 861, respectively. The indictment also sought the forfeiture of the Carpenters' real property, a 100-acre farm, on the basis that it had been "used, or intended to be used, in any manner or part, to commit, or to facilitate the commission of" marijuana manufacturing. 21 U.S.C. § 853(a)(2).

The district court subsequently denied the Carpenters' motions to suppress the evidence seized during the search of their residence. The Carpenters were eventually acquitted on the charge that they employed a minor to manufacture marijuana, but were found guilty of manufacturing marijuana. The jury also concluded that the Carpenters' property had been used to commit the crime, thereby triggering a forfeiture of the property.

II. ANALYSIS
A. The motions to suppress

1. Standard of review

In reviewing the denial of a motion to suppress, we defer to the district court's factual findings unless they are clearly erroneous. Legal conclusions, however, are reviewed de novo. United States v. Bartholomew, 310 F.3d 912, 919 (6th Cir.2002), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 1177, 123 S.Ct. 1005, 154 L.Ed.2d 923 (2003).

2. Whether the affidavit provided a substantial basis for the determination of probable cause

The Fourth Amendment provides that "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation." U.S. Const. amend. IV. In determining whether an affidavit establishes probable cause,

[t]he task of the issuing magistrate is simply to make a practical, commonsense decision whether, given all the circumstances set forth in the affidavit before him, ... there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place. And the duty of a reviewing court is simply to ensure that the magistrate had a substantial basis for concluding that probable cause existed.

Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238-39, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983) (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted).

To justify a search, the circumstances must indicate why evidence of illegal activity will be found "in a particular place." There must, in other words, be a "nexus between the place to be searched and the evidence sought." United States v. Van Shutters, 163 F.3d 331, 336-37 (6th Cir.1998). Lawson's affidavit did not provide a substantial basis for the issuing judge's conclusion that probable cause existed to search the Carpenters' residence, because it failed to set forth sufficient facts that incriminating evidence would be found there, rather than in some other place.

The facts that marijuana was growing "near" the residence and that a road ran nearby fall short of establishing the required nexus between the Carpenters' residence and evidence of marijuana manufacturing. If Lawson's affidavit had stated that beaten paths led from the marijuana patches to the door of the residence, and that two men had been spotted walking from the marijuana patches to the residence, the affidavit would likely have been sufficient to establish probable cause. See United States v. Robins, 978 F.2d 881, 892 (5th Cir.1992) (holding that where a police detective has ascertained that a particular person, Robins, was a marijuana dealer, "[t]here was undoubtedly an adequate nexus between Robins' residence and Detective Soule's allegations to the Magistrate Judge about Robins' marijuana operation, to support the search warrant for the marijuana and related records [that] Detective Soule's experience and common sense told him would likely be at Robins' residence"); United States v. Malin, 908 F.2d 163, 166 (7th Cir.1990) (holding that a police officer's "observation of marijuana growing in Malin's [fenced] yard reasonably yielded the conclusion that marijuana or other evidence of marijuana possession would be found in Malin's house").

These additional facts, however, were not included in the affidavit. The facts in the affidavit that did connect the marijuana patches and the residence were too vague, generalized, and insubstantial to establish probable cause. We therefore conclude that the state judge lacked a substantial basis to determine that probable cause existed to search the Carpenters' residence. The government, indeed, concedes this point. Because the search of the Carpenters' residence violated the Fourth Amendment, we are left with the question of whether the evidence seized should be suppressed.

3. The good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule

"When evidence is obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment, the judicially developed exclusionary rule usually precludes its use in a criminal proceeding against the victim of the illegal search and seizure." Illinois v. Krull, 480 U.S. 340, 347, 107 S.Ct. 1160, 94 L.Ed.2d 364 (1987). Courts should not, however, suppress "evidence obtained in objectively reasonable reliance on a subsequently invalidated search warrant." United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 922, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984). But this good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule does not apply in circumstances where "the officer will have no reasonable grounds for believing that the warrant was properly issued." Id. at 923, 104 S.Ct. 3405. Thus, an officer would not "manifest objective good faith in relying on a warrant based on an affidavit so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to render official belief in its existence entirely unreasonable." Id. (quotation omitted).

a. Whether the officers had a reasonable basis to believe that the...

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