Griffin v. State
| Decision Date | 18 August 1980 |
| Citation | 604 S.W.2d 40 |
| Parties | Charles Frank GRIFFIN, Petitioner, v. STATE of Tennessee, Respondent. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
John R. Seymour, Chattanooga, for petitioner.
Michael J. Passino, Asst. Atty. Gen., William M. Leech, Jr., Atty. Gen., Nashville, for respondent.
The petitioner was convicted of the offense of armed robbery and sentenced to life imprisonment and his conviction was affirmed on appeal. We granted certiorari review to consider the petitioner's contention (1) that his arrest and the search and seizure of evidence incident thereto violated his constitutional rights and rendered the evidence thus obtained inadmissible and (2) his contention that an alleged confession made by him was involuntary and should not have been admitted into evidence.
On March 1, 1977, a truck stop in Chattanooga was robbed at about 9:30 a. m. Eyewitnesses described the robbers as "three tall black males, one of them extremely tall and wearing a black leather jacket." The robbers were armed with a pistol and a sawed-off shotgun and made their getaway in "a 1963 or 1964 blue Buick or Oldsmobile." About $2,000 cash and some checks were taken in the robbery. This information was related to investigating police officers, one of whom was detective Newson of the Chattanooga Police Department.
Approximately 11/2 to 2 hours after the robbery, detective Newson was standing near his patrol car in a parking lot near a street fourteen blocks from the scene of the robbery when he saw a red Ford Pinto pass by on the street. It was driven by an unidentified woman and the defendant was sitting in the right front passenger seat. At the time, Newson was standing about 15 feet away from the passing car. Newson recognized the defendant who was Newson's cousin and was known to detective Newson as a heroin addict with an extensive criminal record. Newson also knew that the defendant was quite tall, 6 feet 4 inches. As the Pinto passed by, detective Newson observed:
On cross-examination detective Newson further explained:
Detective Newson's suspicions were sufficiently aroused that he immediately radioed for two other officers, Mosley and Cook, who were stationed about a half block down the street, and directed them to stop the Pinto. All three of the officers converged on the car, forced the defendant out of the car and placed him against the car in a "frisk position" for a pat down search. As this was being done, Newson directed officer Mosley to check under the front seat on the passenger's side. He testified that he gave this instruction "to see if he (defendant) had stuck anything up under there" when he bent down. He said he wanted to "make sure he didn't have anything." Mosley's search under the right hand front seat resulted in the discovery of approximately $700 in cash. At this point, the defendant was placed under formal arrest and warned of his rights in compliance with the Miranda decision. After the formal arrest was consummated, the officers found a black leather jacket in the back seat of the Pinto, apparently in plain view.
The defendant contends that this warrantless arrest and search were without probable cause and in violation of his constitutional rights. Specifically, defendant contends that his arrest preceded the search and seizure of the money and the black leather jacket and that the facts known to the officers, without those two items, were insufficient to constitute probable cause.
We are satisfied from a review of the record that the arrest and search were lawful and that the evidence thus obtained was admissible.
We hold that the officers were justified in stopping the automobile in which the defendant was riding as a passenger and in ordering him to get out of the car and in placing him against the car in the "frisk position" for a pat down search. Terry v. State of Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).
In Terry, the court said:
"When an officer is justified in believing that the individual whose suspicious behavior he is investigating at close range is armed and presently dangerous to the officer or to others, it would appear to be clearly unreasonable to deny the officer the power to take necessary measures to determine whether the person is in fact carrying a weapon and to neutralize the threat of physical harm." 88 S. Ct. at (1881).
We acknowledge that the rule announced in Terry v. State of Ohio, supra, has been limited and explained in later decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 99 S.Ct. 2637, 61 L.Ed.2d 357 (1979); Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979). In Dunaway the court said:
"(Terry) involved a brief, on-the-spot stop on the street and a frisk for weapons, a situation that did not fit comfortably within the traditional concept of an 'arrest.'
" . . . the court established 'a narrowly drawn authority to permit a reasonable search for weapons for the protection of the police officer, where he has reason to believe that he is dealing with an armed and dangerous individual, regardless of whether he has probable cause to arrest the individual for a crime.' " 99 S.Ct. at 2254-55.
It was held in Dunaway that the Terry doctrine does not authorize the taking of a person into custody and to the police station for interrogation, so called "custodial questioning."
In Brown v. Texas, supra, the court stated:
Applying the foregoing principles to the facts of the instant case, we conclude that officer Newson had ample justification for making the initial investigatory stop of the car in which the defendant was riding and in ordering him to get out of the car and place himself in the "frisk position" against the automobile. We reach that conclusion because of these factors:
(1) Defendant generally fit the description of one of the robbers, i. e., a "very tall" black male;
(2) The stop was reasonably close to the robbery, both in time and space;
(3) When spotted, the defendant looked surprised, "scooted down and bent over" in a suspicious manner;
(4) Officer Newson knew the defendant was a heroin addict and had a criminal record and very likely was armed.
Although these factors were insufficient to constitute the probable cause necessary for a full arrest, they did constitute grounds for "a reasonable suspicion, based on objective facts, that the individual (was) involved in criminal activity." Brown v. Texas, supra.
The next question is whether the officers were justified in searching under the passenger's side of the front seat of the automobile from which the defendant was removed, a search which revealed the incriminating $700. In our opinion, this limited search was justified upon two grounds. The same societal interest which justifies the pat down search of the defendant's person, that is, the interest in...
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