Davis v. State
Citation | 859 A.2d 1112,383 Md. 394 |
Decision Date | 21 October 2004 |
Docket Number | No. 59 |
Parties | Robert DAVIS v. STATE of Maryland. Damont Adams v. State of Maryland. |
Court | Court of Appeals of Maryland |
Stacy W. McCormack, Asst. Public Defender (Stephen E. Harris, Public Defender, on brief), Baltimore, for petitioner.
Kathryn Grill Graeff, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen. of Maryland, on brief), Baltimore, for respondent.
Argued before BELL, C.J., ELDRIDGE1, RAKER, WILNER, CATHELL, HARRELL and BATTAGLIA, JJ.
The Petitioners, Robert Davis and Damont Adams, were arrested, charged with, and convicted of, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and a handgun violation. The arrests, charges and convictions followed the search of 4011 Boarman Avenue, in Baltimore City, by officers of the Baltimore City Police Department, pursuant to a search and seizure warrant. The warrant incorporated by reference the affidavit of the police officer affiants, O'Ree and Brickus. In that affidavit, they indicated that a "rushed or no knock forced entry" of the premises would be required. The issue that this case presents is whether, where there is no statute so providing, a judge is authorized to issue a "no-knock" warrant, on the basis of which the police may make a "no-knock" entry to execute a search and seizure warrant.2 The Court of Special Appeals affirmed the judgments of conviction, holding both that a "no-knock" entry was justified by the exigent circumstances detailed in the search and seizure warrant, thus affirmatively validating the propriety of the issuance of a "no-knock" warrant, and that, in any event, the "good faith" exception to the exclusionary rule "saved" the admissibility of the evidence.3 We shall reverse.
After conducting an investigation, police officers O'Ree and Brickus applied for, and obtained, a search and seizure warrant for the Boarman Avenue premises, the petitioners,4 and a black Nissan Sentra, which they alleged was driven by the petitioners and associated with their operation. The application for the search warrant, which included the officers' affidavit, enumerated the applicants' considerable experience,5 and detailed their investigation,6 including the conclusions they reached as a result of that investigation. Then, the applicants submitted:
A judge issued the search and seizure warrant. Although the warrant did not do so explicitly, no express provision to that effect being included in the warrant, because it "incorporated by reference" the affidavit of Officers O'Ree and Brickus, which stated their intention "to gain entry by the rush or No-Knock forced entry," the warrant implicitly authorized a "no-knock entry." In executing the warrant, the police neither knocked, nor announced their presence or purpose; rather, they gained entry, as they stated that they intended to do, through the use of force. The petitioners were found in a second floor bedroom, in which various weapons and drug paraphernalia also were found. In a refrigerator in that same room, the officers recovered a large ziplock baggie containing 60 smaller baggies of suspected marijuana.
The petitioners moved, pre-trial, to suppress7 the evidence seized during the search. Their argument was directed to, and challenged, the sufficiency of the showing the affiants made to justify the issuance of the warrant, which the petitioners characterized as a "no-knock" warrant. More particularly, the petitioners argued, inter alia, that the facts alleged in the affidavit submitted in support of the search and seizure warrant were insufficient to justify a "no-knock entry."8 The Circuit Court denied the motion to suppress. It held that, in light of their wealth of experience in the area of narcotics drug enforcement, as detailed in their affidavit, the police officers' determination that a no-knock entry was required was not "irrational." It reasoned:
Both of the petitioners timely appealed. In separate opinions, by different panels of the court, the Court of Special Appeals affirmed the judgments of the Circuit Court. With regard to petitioner Adams, the court, in an unreported opinion, declined to consider whether the affidavit submitted in support of the application for the search and seizure warrant sufficiently alleged facts to authorize a "no-knock" warrant. Instead, it held that "even if the application for the search warrant did not set forth legally sufficient exigent circumstances justifying a `no-knock' warrant, the evidence seized should not be suppressed under the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule." The court explained:
id. at 158, 797 A.2d at 93, all of which, it concluded, supported its holding. Alternatively, the intermediate appellate court held that, even if the no-knock entry were illegal in that case, the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule applied to render the evidence seized in the case admissible. Id. at 159, 797 A.2d at 93. The court reasoned:
"Other courts have applied the good faith exception to cases involving the issuing of a no-knock search warrant. See United States v. Tisdale, 195 F.3d 70 (2nd Cir.1999)
; United States v. Carter, 999 F.2d 182 (7th Cir.1993); United States v. Moland, 996 F.2d 259 (10th Cir.1993); United States v. Moore, 956 F.2d 843 (8th Cir.1992); United States v. Gonzalez, 164 F.Supp.2d 119,(D.Mass.2001); United States v. Rivera, 2000 WL 761976, 2000 U.S. Dist. Lexis 7997 (D. Maine 2000); United States v. Brown, 69...
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