McClintock v. State

538 S.W.3d 542
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 13, 2017
DocketNO. PD-1641-15
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 538 S.W.3d 542 (McClintock v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McClintock v. State, 538 S.W.3d 542 (Tex. 2017).

Opinion

Alcala, J., filed a dissenting opinion in which Walker, J., joined.

In contrast to this Court's refusal to grant the motion for rehearing filed by Bradley Ray McClintock, appellant, I would instead grant his motion and rehear the case. On original submission, this Court held, for the first time, that when a magistrate and search-warrant affiant believe that a warrant is being issued based upon probable cause under the existing law, but they are reasonably wrong about the existing law due to this Court's mistaken statements about the law, then the evidence need not be suppressed. See McClintock v. State , No. PD-1641-15, 541 S.W.3d 63, 72-73, 2017 WL 1076289, at *7 (Tex. Crim. App. March 22, 2017). I dissented. In my dissenting opinion, I explained that I would have held that the plain language in Article 38.23 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure requires the suppression of the evidence because the good-faith exception for warrants is inapplicable under the facts of this case. See id. at 75, 2017 WL 1076289, at *8 (Alcala, J., dissenting); TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. art 38.23.1 I explained that the good-faith exception in Article 38.23(b) was inapplicable because the statute's requirement of a warrant "based upon probable cause" plainly requires probable cause under a correct application of the law. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. art. 38.23(b). I noted that this Court's longstanding precedent supported my assessment of the plain language in the statute. See McClintock, 541 S.W.3d at 76, 2017 WL 1076289, at *9.2 Given this, I indicated that the statutory good-faith exception should not apply to this case because, as this Court held in our *543earlier opinion in this case, no probable cause supported the search warrant that was issued. See McClintock v. State , 444 S.W.3d 15, 19-20 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014). In the absence of probable cause under a correct application of the law, the general rule in Article 38.23(a) applies and requires that the evidence in this case be suppressed. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. art. 38.23(a). Rather than repeat my earlier dissenting opinion in this case, I issue the instant dissenting opinion on rehearing to address appellant's arguments presented in his motion for rehearing.

In his motion for rehearing, appellant makes three points. First, he asserts that this Court's majority opinion failed to consider the particular facts about appellant's apartment and its landing before summarily concluding that the scope of an apartment's curtilage is "close and contentious." Second, he contends that the standard employed by this Court's majority opinion creates an unduly broad good-faith exception applicable anytime the law regarding a predicate search is not "crystal clear." Third, he argues that this case should be remanded for consideration of whether the good-faith exception is inapplicable due to the intentionally or recklessly made false statements and omissions in the affidavit. Each of these arguments is worthy of this Court's attention and presents a valid basis for withdrawing the earlier majority opinion in this case.

A. The Majority Opinion Did Not Analyze the Facts of Appellant's Case or Consider Relevant Texas Precedent

Appellant suggests that this Court's majority opinion did not analyze the curtilage issue on the facts of this particular case, and he asserts that this analysis would reveal that the curtilage issue is not "close and contentious," as the majority opinion determined. See McClintock , 541 S.W.3d at 74, 2017 WL 1076289, at *8. As appellant notes, unlike the apartment in State v. Rendon , 477 S.W.3d 805 (Tex. Crim. App. 2015), which presented a close and contentious question about the extent of its curtilage, the landing outside of appellant's rear door did not present a close or contentious question about whether it was within his apartment's curtilage. Appellant's landing was not visible to the public or other tenants, was accessible only from a private lot, led to appellant's apartment only, and was used by appellant for domestic activities. Furthermore, unlike in Rendon , where the facts showed that Rendon would expect members of the public to approach, here the entry used by the police was at the back door, and the police's entry onto the landing occurred in the middle of the night. Because of the significant factual differences between Rendon and this case, this Court's majority opinion should not have relied on the dispute about the boundaries of curtilage in Rendon to affect the decision about whether there was any real dispute about curtilage in this case.

Although it impacted the legality of an intrusion into the curtilage in factual scenarios like Rendon 's, the Supreme Court's decision in Jardines was immaterial to these facts that, under Texas law, would have required a search warrant even pre- Jardines . See Florida v. Jardines , 569 U.S. 1, 133 S.Ct. 1409, 185 L.Ed.2d 495 (2013). As appellant observes, "Well before the challenged police conduct[,] this Court had recognized that, while an officer is authorized by well-established community custom to enter curtilage for the purpose of knocking on the front door, 'once he deviates from this purpose' he 'has no right to be there.' " See Bower v. State , 769 S.W.2d 887, 897 (Tex. Crim. App. 1989), cert. denied , 492 U.S. 927, 109 S.Ct. 3266

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
538 S.W.3d 542, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcclintock-v-state-texcrimapp-2017.