U.S. v. Jackson
| Decision Date | 20 December 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 91-5135,91-5135 |
| Citation | 951 F.2d 350 |
| Parties | NOTICE: Sixth Circuit Rule 24(c) states that citation of unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Sixth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Shirley JACKSON, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Before KENNEDY and BOGGS, Circuit Judges; and EDGAR, District Judge. *
This case presents a search and seizure issue. Appellant Jackson ("Jackson") contends that an affidavit for a search warrant was defective and insufficient to establish probable cause to search her apartment. Jackson asserts that her judgment of conviction must be reversed and remanded because the district court erred in denying her motion to suppress the incriminating evidence seized as a result of the execution of the search warrant. We AFFIRM the judgment of conviction.
On November 12, 1988, a police officer submitted his affidavit for a search warrant to the General Sessions Court in Shelby County, Tennessee, which stated in relevant part:
Personally appeared before me, H.D. Williams and made oath that he has good ground and belief, and does believe that a female black, approximately 32 years old, 5'6", 160 lbs., medium complexion, with the first name of Shirley, with blond tinted hair, is/are in possession of the following described property, to wit: cocaine ... upon the following described premises, to wit: an apartment complex more commonly known as 1736 # 2 Baroness, the same being located in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee and his reasons for such belief are that affiant has on November 12, 1988, the affiant talked with a reliable informant of Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee who has given the affiant other information in the past which has been found to be true and correct and which has resulted in several narcotic arrests and drug seizures. This reliable informant has been inside the above described apartment and has seen the above described person storing and selling cocaine inside this apartment.
He therefore asks that a warrant issue to search the person and premises ... where he believes said cocaine is/are now possessed, contrary to the Laws of Tennessee.
Based on this affidavit, the state judge issued a search warrant. When the police executed the warrant, they found cocaine inside Jackson's apartment. Jackson was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury along with two co-defendants for aiding and abetting one another to possess 51 grams of cocaine with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1).
Jackson filed a pretrial motion to suppress, as evidence, the cocaine seized pursuant to the warrant. Jackson argued that the affidavit for the search warrant was defective and insufficient to support a finding of probable cause under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution because the affidavit makes no reference to the date or time when the informant was alleged to have seen cocaine inside the apartment. In denying the motion to suppress, the district court determined that the affidavit, when viewed in its entirety, was not fatally defective. While noting that it would have been a better practice for the affiant to have included the date and time when the informant actually observed the cocaine in the apartment, the district court, citing United States v. Smith, 783 F.2d 648 (6th Cir.1986), found that this defect was not sufficient to justify granting the motion to suppress.
We will forego an independent analysis of whether the "totality of the circumstances" justified the state judge in finding probable cause to issue the warrant under Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213 (1983). Instead, our focus is on the question of whether the police officer acted reasonably and in good faith reliance on the search warrant. United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984). We review this matter de novo. United States v. Simpkins, 914 F.2d 1054, 1057-58 (8th Cir.1990), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 997, 112 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1991); United States v. Bowling, 900 F.2d 926, 930 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 109, 112 L.Ed.2d 79 (1990).
The Supreme Court in Leon, 468 U.S. 897, held that the suppression of evidence obtained through a search warrant should be ordered on a case-by-case basis and only in those unusual cases where suppression will further the purposes of the judicially created exclusionary rule. The exclusionary rule should not be applied in such a manner as to deter objectively reasonable law enforcement activity. Moreover, the exclusionary rule does not bar the government's use in its case-in-chief of evidence obtained by a police officer who acted in reasonable reliance on a search warrant issued by a neutral, detached judge even though the warrant is ultimately found to be unsupported by probable cause. In Leon, the suppression of evidence on account of a deficient affidavit 1 and the judge's erroneous probable cause determination was found to be inappropriate...
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