State v. Saiz, 15928

• Decision Date: 21 March 1988
• Docket Number: No. 15928,15928
• Citation: 427 N.W.2d 825
• Parties: STATE of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Rosendo Deleon SAIZ, Defendant and Appellant. . Considered on Briefs
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

Page 825

427 N.W.2d 825

STATE of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Rosendo Deleon SAIZ, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 15928.

Supreme Court of South Dakota.

Considered on Briefs March 21, 1988.

Decided Aug. 3, 1988.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 8, 1988.

Richard D. Coit, Asst. Atty. Gen., Pierre, for plaintiff and appellee; Roger A. Tellinghuisen, Atty. Gen., Pierre, on brief.

Neil Carsrud of Bennett & Main, P.C., Belle Fourche, for defendant and appellant.

WUEST, Chief Justice.

Defendant, Rosendo Saiz, appeals his conviction on various drug charges. We affirm.

In January, 1987, the Butte County Sheriff and State's Attorney received information from a confidential informant that defendant had possession of one-half ounce of cocaine. According to the informant, the drugs would either be on defendant's person, in his red Chevrolet pickup, or in his Belle Fourche trailer home.

The sheriff and the state's attorney prepared affidavits in support of a search warrant. The sheriff's affidavit described the place to be searched and the items to be seized and further stated that the informant was "reliable." The state's attorney's affidavit stated that the informant had been "trustworthy and accurate" in the past.

The sheriff and the state's attorney presented the affidavits to a circuit judge who issued a search warrant. A search conducted pursuant to the warrant disclosed hashish, nine grams of cocaine, and drug paraphernalia.

After a suppression hearing, the trial court determined the search warrant was invalid. The trial court, however, held the evidence was admissible under the "good faith" exception to the exclusionary rule announced in United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984), reh'g denied, 468 U.S. 1250, 105 S.Ct. 52, 82 L.Ed.2d 942 (1984).

After a trial to the court, defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to thirty days for possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, six years in the State Penitentiary for possession of a controlled substance, and five years for keeping a place for use or sale of controlled substances. He was also adjudged a habitual offender.

Defendant now claims the trial court found the search warrant invalid for the wrong reason. The State, however, did not appeal that decision, and since the trial court determined the issue in favor of defendant we consider the matter moot and decline to discuss the probable cause issue. The only meritorious issue on appeal is whether the trial court should have applied the "good faith" exception to the exclusionary rule adopted in Leon.

Defendant attacks the "good faith" ruling of the trial court on two grounds. He first points out that, as this court established in State v. Opperman, 247 N.W.2d 673 (S.D.1976), the South Dakota Constitution furnishes a supplemental source of individual rights that may afford greater protection than the federal constitution. He then contends that the "good faith" exception should not be applied to Article VI, Sec. 11 of the South Dakota Constitution. Defendant further argues that even if we hold that the exception applies under Article VI, Sec. 11, the trial court's ruling should be overturned because the "good faith" requirement has not been met in this case as to either the state or the federal constitutions.

The exclusionary rule has been embroiled in controversy since it was first adopted in Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 34 S.Ct. 341, 58 L.Ed. 652 (1914). Much of that controversy has centered on the purposes of the rule.

One school of thought takes the view that the exclusionary rule should be limited to situations where it deters police from conducting illegal searches. Under this view, the rule should not apply where the rule's societal costs outweigh its marginal or nonexistent deterrent value in certain cases. Central to this position is that the admission of illegally seized evidence does not constitute an independent Fourth Amendment violation. This school of thought has prevailed in the more recent Fourth Amendment cases that have witnessed the ascendency of the "police deterrence rationale" for the exclusionary rule and a partial narrowing of the scope of the rule. See Dripps, Living With Leon, 95 YALE L.J. 906 (1986); Note, The Good Faith Exception to the Exclusionary Rule, 27 B.C.L.REV. 609 (1986).

The opposing school takes a broader view, asserting that the purpose of the rule is to restrain the government as a whole. This unitary view adopts the position taken in early cases that each branch of government is a part of a single prosecution network and that no important distinction exists between the procuring of evidence by law enforcement and its admission by the courts. Central to this position is the concept introduced in Weeks that the admission of illegally seized evidence is a separate Fourth Amendment violation. See Dripps, supra; Note, supra.

This latter approach continually expanded the exclusionary rule. Since 1974, however, the United States Supreme Court has begun to recognize that such bending application of the exclusionary rule departs from the underlying purpose for which the rule was created. We believe the analysis in Leon and its related cases has properly refocused on the purpose behind the exclusionary rule.

The exclusionary rule is not a "necessary corollary of the Fourth Amendment." Leon, 468 U.S. at 905, 104 S.Ct. at 3411, 82 L.Ed.2d at 687. The exclusionary rule operates as a judicially created remedy designed to deter illegal police conduct and thereby safeguard Fourth Amendment rights. It was not created as a personal constitutional right of the party aggrieved. Leon, 468 U.S. at 906, 104 S.Ct. at 3412, 82 L.Ed.2d at 687; United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 348, 94 S.Ct. 613, 620, 38 L.Ed.2d 561, 571 (1974).

Whether a search conducted pursuant to a subsequently invalidated warrant violated a defendant's Fourth Amendment rights is an issue separate from the question whether the remedial exclusionary sanction should apply in a particular case. Leon, 468 U.S. at 906, 104 S.Ct. at 3412, 82 L.Ed.2d at 688; Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 223, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2324, 76 L.Ed.2d 527, 538-39 (1983). The latter question involves a balancing of the costs of the exclusionary rule with its deterrent value in various situations. Leon, 468 U.S. at 909-10, 104 S.Ct. at 3413, 82 L.Ed.2d at 689-90.

One consequence of the exclusionary rule is that there is an interference with the criminal justice system's truth-finding function. Leon, 468 U.S. at 907-08, 104 S.Ct. at 3412, 82 L.Ed.2d at 688-89. "[A]ny rule of evidence that denies the jury access to clearly probative and reliable evidence must bear a heavy burden of justification, and must be carefully limited to the circumstances in which it will pay its way by deterring official lawlessness." Id. at n. 6 (quoting Gates, 462 U.S. at 257-58, 103 S.Ct. at 2342, 76 L.Ed.2d at 561 (White, J., concurring in judgment)).

"Our cases have consistently recognized that unbending application of the exclusionary sanction to enforce ideals of governmental rectitude would impede unacceptably the truth-finding functions of judge and jury." An objectionable collateral consequence of this interference with the criminal justice system's truth-finding function is that some guilty defendants may go free or receive reduced sentences as a result of favorable plea bargains. Particularly when law enforcement officers have acted in objective good faith or their transgressions have been minor, the magnitude of the benefit conferred on such guilty defendants offends basic concepts of the criminal justice system.... Accordingly, "[a]s with any remedial device, the application of the rule has been restricted to those areas where its remedial objectives are thought most efficaciously served."

Leon, 468 U.S. at 907-08, 104 S.Ct. at 3412-13, 82 L.Ed.2d at 688-89 (citations omitted).

The balancing approach "forcefully suggest[s] that the exclusionary rule be more generally modified to permit the introduction of evidence obtained in a reasonable good-faith belief that a search or seizure was in accord with the Fourth Amendment." Leon, 468 U.S. at 909, 104 S.Ct. at 3413, 82 L.Ed.2d at 689 (quoting Gates, 462 U.S. at 255, 103 S.Ct. at 2341, 76 L.Ed.2d at 559 (White, J., concurring in judgment)). The question whether the exclusionary sanction should apply in a particular case "must be resolved by weighing the costs and benefits of preventing the use in the prosecution's case in chief of inherently trustworthy tangible evidence obtained in reliance on a search warrant issued by a detached and neutral magistrate that ultimately is found to be defective." Leon, 468 U.S. at 906-07, 104 S.Ct. at 3412, 82 L.Ed.2d at 688.

The exclusionary rule was adopted to deter unlawful searches by police, not to punish the errors of magistrates and judges. Massachusetts v. Sheppard, 468 U.S. 981, 990, 104 S.Ct. 3424, 3429, 82 L.Ed.2d 737, 745 (1984) (citing Gates, 462 U.S. at 263, 103 S.Ct. at 2346, 76 L.Ed.2d at 565 (White, J., concurring in judgment)); Leon, 468 U.S. at 916, 104 S.Ct. at 3417, 82 L.Ed.2d at 694. Judges and magistrates are not adversary law enforcement officers but are neutral and detached judicial officers with no stake in the outcome of a criminal prosecution. Leon, 468 U.S. at 917, 104 S.Ct. at 3417, 82 L.Ed.2d at 695. If the exclusion of evidence obtained pursuant to a subsequently invalidated warrant is to have any deterrent effect, the exclusion must alter the behavior of police officers and their departments. If the remedial sanction does not have that effect, it will not meet its stated purpose. Leon, 468 U.S. at 918, 104 S.Ct. at 3418, 82 L.Ed.2d at 695.

In the ordinary case, an officer cannot be expected to question the magistrate's probable-cause determination or his judgment that the form of the warrant is technically sufficient. "[O]nce the warrant issues, there is literally nothing more...