Powell v. State

930 P.2d 1123, 113 Nev. 41, 1997 Nev. LEXIS 10
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 3, 1997
Docket22348
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 930 P.2d 1123 (Powell v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Powell v. State, 930 P.2d 1123, 113 Nev. 41, 1997 Nev. LEXIS 10 (Neb. 1997).

Opinions

[42]*42OPINION

By the Court,

Shearing, J.:

This case comes to us on remand from the United States Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court determined that this court erred in failing to apply County of Riverside v. McLaughlin, 500 U.S. 44 (1991), retroactively to the case of Kitrich Powell. The case was remanded to this court for a determination of the appropriate remedy for the delay in determining probable cause and for a determination as to whether harmless error analysis applies.1

Police arrested Powell without a warrant on Friday, November 3, 1989, for felony child abuse of his girlfriend’s four-year-old daughter. Earlier that day, Powell had made several admissions to the police. On November 7, 1989, while still in custody, Powell made several more admissions to the police. In an ex parte hearing later that day, a magistrate found for the first time that probable cause existed to arrest Powell.

[43]*43On November 8, 1989, Powell was charged with child abuse causing substantial bodily harm in violation of NRS 200.508. After the child died, Powell was charged with murder. At trial, prosecutors presented evidence of Powell’s statements both before his arrest and on the day of his probable cause hearing. A jury subsequently found Powell guilty of first degree murder and sentenced him to death.

On direct appeal Powell claimed, among other things, that he was not brought before a magistrate within seventy-two hours after his arrest as required by NRS 171.178(3).2 We held that Powell had waived his right to a timely arraignment. Powell v. State, 108 Nev. 700, 706, 838 P.2d 921, 925 (1992). However, in the course of our opinion, we noted that in McLaughlin, 500 U.S. at 56, the United States Supreme Court held that a judicial probable cause determination must generally be made within forty-eight hours of a warrantless arrest. Powell, 108 Nev. at 705, 838 P.2d at 924. Relying on McLaughlin, this court held that NRS 171.178(3) violated the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution to the extent that it permitted an initial appearance for a probable cause determination up to seventy-two hours after an arrest and excluded nonjudicial days from the calculation of the seventy-two hours.3 Id.; 838 P.2d at 924.

However, in this court’s opinion affirming Powell’s conviction, we noted that the forty-eight hour rule announced in McLaughlin [44]*44did not apply retroactively to Powell’s case. Id. at 705 n.1; 838 P.2d at 924 n.1. The United States Supreme Court disagreed on the ground that the rule was applicable to all convictions which had not become final when McLaughlin was announced. Powell v. Nevada, 511 U.S. 79 (1994). The United States Supreme Court remanded this case to this court for our determination of the appropriate remedy for the delay in determining probable cause and for consideration of the argument that the error was harmless.4 Id.

The United States Supreme Court first recognized the right to a prompt judicial determination of probable cause in Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103 (1975). Gerstein resolved two important issues. First, although it required police officers to prove probable cause for arrests, the Court did not require an adversarial hearing. Id. at 120. Second, the Court stated that a state’s failure to conduct a probable cause hearing is not sufficient in itself to void a subsequent conviction. Id. at 119.

Gerstein left two important questions unanswered: (1) the timing necessary for a “prompt” judicial determination, and (2) the proper remedy for a violation of the Fourth Amendment right to a prompt probable cause hearing. The United States Supreme Court resolved the first question in McLaughlin when it held that “a jurisdiction that provides judicial determinations of probable cause within 48 hours of arrest will, as a general matter, comply with the promptness requirement of Gerstein. McLaughlin, 500 U.S. at 56.

This court must now determine whether the exclusion of evidence obtained during an unlawful detention is the proper remedy for an unconstitutional denial of the right to a probable cause hearing within forty-eight hours of arrest, i.e., a Gerstein/ McLaughlin violation.

In Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 398 (1914), the United States Supreme Court first reasoned that evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment must be excluded in the federal courts. The Court later increased the breadth of the exclusionary rule by holding that the rule applied to the states as well as to the federal government. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 655 (1961). The Mapp Court reasoned that the Fourth Amendment right carries with it a “most important constitutional privilege, namely, the exclusion of the evidence which an accused had [45]*45been forced to give by reason of the unlawful seizure. To hold otherwise is to grant the right but in reality to withhold its privilege and enjoyment. “ Id. at 656.

Recently, the United States Supreme Court has limited the exclusionary rule, apparently abandoning the position that effec-tuation of the Fourth Amendment requires unwavering application of the exclusionary rule. The Court has concluded that the exclusionary rule may not apply in certain forums, including grand jury hearings,5 actions to recover a tax delinquency,6 and deportation hearings.7 Significantly, the Court has also determined that a court is not compelled to exclude evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment if a police officer relied in good faith on a warrant. United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984). In Leon, the Court held that a police officer’s good faith reliance on a magistrate’s warrant can sufficiently support the purposes of the Fourth Amendment even when the magistrate’s probable cause determination is erroneous. Id. at 925-26.

In its decision last year in Arizona v. Evans, 514 U.S. 1, 13-14, 115 S. Ct. 1185, 1192-93 (1995), the United States Supreme Court reiterated its position that the issue of exclusion is separate from the question of whether the Fourth Amendment has been violated, and that exclusion is only appropriate where the remedial objectives of the exclusionary rule are served. In Evans,

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Bluebook (online)
930 P.2d 1123, 113 Nev. 41, 1997 Nev. LEXIS 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/powell-v-state-nev-1997.