Ex Parte Turner

792 So. 2d 1141, 2000 WL 356316
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedApril 7, 2000
Docket1971735
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 792 So. 2d 1141 (Ex Parte Turner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex Parte Turner, 792 So. 2d 1141, 2000 WL 356316 (Ala. 2000).

Opinions

* Note from the reporter of decisions: The Court of Criminal Appeals spells this this defendant's name Michael Dwayne Turner."

Michael Dewayne Turner was convicted of trafficking marijuana and failure to affix the appropriate tax stamps. Turner appealed his conviction to the Court of Criminal Appeals, where he contended, in pertinent part, that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the search warrant because there was no legal basis for a search. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Turner's conviction and, of particular pertinence, affirmed the trial court's denial of Turner's motion to suppress evidence seized when the police officers executed an anticipatory search warrant at his residence. We granted Turner's petition for a writ of certiorari, which seeks review of only this single issue. We hold that Alabama law did not authorize the warrant and that the exclusionary rule requires the suppression of the evidence. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Michael Turner came to the attention of law enforcement officials after a United States postal inspector noticed a package that was addressed to Turner at his Birmingham residence. The package, mailed from Los Angeles, California, bore a return address indicating "resident" as the return person. Suspicious of the contents of the package, the inspector asked for assistance from the Birmingham K-9 patrol. The dogs indicated the presence of marijuana by "alerting" to the package.

The inspector obtained a federal search warrant from a United States magistrate judge and opened the package. He found five individually wrapped bundles of material that field-tested as marijuana. The United States Attorney's office declined to prosecute Turner. The inspector then referred the matter to the Birmingham Police Department, which agreed to prosecute. Two of the five bundles of marijuana were turned over to the Birmingham Police Department. The other three were repackaged and a "controlled delivery" to Turner was arranged. Sergeant Michael Ashworth of the Birmingham Police Department obtained an anticipatory search warrant from a district court judge. The affidavit in support of the search warrant, issued on September 6, 1995, read in pertinent part:

"On September 6, 1995, the package will be delivered, as addressed, to 176 Moonridge Avenue, Apartment 132, Homewood, Alabama 35209, by Postal Inspector Preston Parnell. Postal Inspector Parnell will be working in an undercover capacity, posing as a mail carrier. If *Page 1143 delivery is successful at the aforementioned address, Birmingham narcotics officers will execute a search of the residence.

"Based on the above information, I have probable cause to and do believe that marijuana, to-wit: a controlled substance, is presently located at 176 Moonridge Avenue, Apartment 132, Homewood, Jefferson County, Alabama, in violation of the laws of the State of Alabama."

On September 6, 1995, a "controlled delivery" was accomplished when a United States postal inspector, disguised as a mail carrier, delivered the package to Turner's apartment. Turner took the package inside the apartment but did not open it. When he attempted to leave the apartment, Turner was detained by a Birmingham police officer. Later that day, Sergeant Ashworth brought the search warrant, searched the premises, and seized the package.

Turner filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained by means of the search warrant. The motion was denied, and Turner was tried and convicted. He appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals.

The Court of Criminal Appeals, affirming the trial court's denial of the appellant's motion to suppress, relied on this Court's decision in Ex parte Walls, [Ms. 1960352, August 7, 1997] ("[w]hen the warrant in this case was executed, Alabama case law [Oswalt v. State] specifically held that such search warrants were authorized"), to find that the police officers were acting on a facially valid warrant when they searched the appellant's residence. On the same day the Court of Criminal Appeals issued its affirmance, however, this Court withdrew the Walls opinion followed by the Court of Criminal Appeals in this case, and substituted, in place of its withdrawn Walls opinion, Ex parteWalls, 711 So.2d 490 (Ala. 1997), which reversed Walls's conviction on the merits and rendered a judgment in his favor grounded on insufficiency of the evidence. This Court thereby reversed the Court of Criminal Appeals' decision of Walls v.State, 711 So.2d 483 (Ala.Crim.App. 1996), without discussing any issue relating to the execution of the anticipatory search warrant. Thereafter, the Court of Criminal Appeals withdrew its original opinion in this Turner case and substituted an opinion which held that "the deterrent purpose of the exclusionary rule would not be served here, because the police did not have knowledge, nor could they be charged with knowledge, that the warrant was invalid because of its anticipatory nature." Turner v.State 792 So.2d 1138, 1140 (Ala.Crim.App. 1998).

Although the Court of Criminal Appeals opined that "the search warrant in this case was not an anticipatory warrant," it recognized that it was anticipatory in nature. Turner, 792 So.2d at 1139. The record reflects that Sergeant Ashworth testified at the September 18, 1996 suppression hearing in this case, that he "sat down and wrote an anticipatory search warrant."

Turner argues that the Court of Criminal Appeals' opinion affirming his conviction is in conflict with a prior decision of this Court on the same point of law. Specifically, Turner contends that the Court of Criminal Appeals' finding that the police officers were acting in good faith in executing a facially valid anticipatory search warrant conflicts with this Court's opinion in Ex parte Oswalt, 686 So.2d 368, 372 (Ala. 1996), released on May 24, 1996, which invalidated anticipatory search warrants. Ex parte Oswalt reversed Oswalt v. State,686 So.2d 386 (Ala.Crim.App. 1994), which had upheld an anticipatory search warrant. *Page 1144

This Court, in Ex parte Oswalt, explained that an anticipatory search warrant "anticipates that certain specific events will occur after the issuance of the warrant, those future events creating the probable cause that supports the warrant. If the future events do not occur, the warrant is void." Id. at 372. (Citations omitted.) Considering the language of § 15-5-2, Ala. Code 1975, and Rule 3.8, Ala.R.Crim.P., this Court concluded that the legislature did not intend to allow the issuance of a search warrant when "the crime to which the evidence at issue relates has not yet occurred and the evidence to be seized is not presently in the possession of the person whose premises are to be searched." Id. at 373. (Emphasis omitted.) Reading Rule 3.8 inpari materia with § 15-5-2, this Court stated:

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Related

Walker v. State
39 So. 3d 1179 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2009)
Bailey v. State
67 So. 3d 145 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2009)
Dodson v. State
2006 OK CR 32 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2006)
Straughn v. State
876 So. 2d 492 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2003)
Turner v. State
792 So. 2d 1152 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2001)
Ex Parte Lemus
802 So. 2d 1073 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 2001)
Ex Parte Turner
792 So. 2d 1141 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 2000)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
792 So. 2d 1141, 2000 WL 356316, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-turner-ala-2000.