Raif v. State

136 S.E.2d 169, 109 Ga. App. 354, 1964 Ga. App. LEXIS 870
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 25, 1964
Docket40186, 40187
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 136 S.E.2d 169 (Raif v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Raif v. State, 136 S.E.2d 169, 109 Ga. App. 354, 1964 Ga. App. LEXIS 870 (Ga. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinions

Nichols, Presiding Judge.

1. These cases were tried under the law enunciated in Winston v. State, 79 Ga. App. 711 (2a) (54 SE2d 354), and the cases there cited which held: “Although evidence against a defendant in a criminal case may be obtained by peace officers in the course of an unlawful, unwarranted, unreasonable, and reprehensible search of the home of the defendant, in a flagrant violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and article 1, section 1, paragraph 16 of the Constitution of the State of Georgia, this does not affect the admissibility of the evidence thus obtained. Williams v. State, 100 Ga. 511 (1) (28 SE 624, 39 LRA 269).”

Judge Townsend, in that case, recognized the effect of such decisions and, speaking for himself and not for the court, said: “These decisions have had the effect of making but an empty shell of what was intended by the framers of these great guaranties of liberty to be the living seed of freedom. The Bills of Bights were ordained and established to protect the citizen against his public officers. A part of the first provision of the Constitution of the State of Georgia (article 1, section 1, paragraph 1) provides as follows: ‘Public officers are the trustees and servants of the people, and at all times amenable to them.’ The foregoing decisions of our Supreme Court, coupled with the law not in conflict therewith, say in effect to the peace officers of this State, ‘You shall not make an unreasonable search and seizure of the home of a citizen, because his home is his castle. The breaking down of his door is a trespass for which you are responsible both civilly and criminally. An unlawful search [357]*357and seizure by you amounts to a violation of the most sacred rights given under our organic law. However, if you do make such a search, bring the evidence you thus obtained into a court of justice, and it will be given the same consideration as evidence honorably obtained.’ ”

At the time the Winston case and other similar cases were decided the decisions of the U. S. Supreme Court permitted each State to determine if such illegally obtained evidence was admissible in the courts of that State. See Wolf v. Colorado, 338 U. S. 25 (69 SC 1359, 93 LE 1782). And following such decisions this court in Winston and similar cases followed the decisions of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Since that time the U. S. Supreme Court has repudiated its decision in the Wolf case and in Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643 (81 SC 1684, 6 LE2d 1081) held that evidence obtained as a result of an illegal search and seizure is not admissible in either Federal or State courts. See also Fahy v. Connecticut, 375 U.S. 85 (84 SC 229, 11 LE2d 171). Thus, under such decision evidence obtained under an illegal arrest is not admissible in state courts. In Ker v. California, 374 U. S. 23 (83 SC 1623, 10 LE2d 726), it was decided that evidence obtained in connection with a legal arrest was admissible although obtained from the defendant’s home without a search warrant and although the arrest was made without a warrant. The officer there had reasonable grounds to believe an offense was being committed and such case is of course distinguishable from the present case where there was no evidence that the defendants were violating any law or municipal ordinance at the time of the arrest, no evidence of flight, and no evidence to authorize the arresting officer to arrest the defendants because there was likely to be a failure of justice if the arrest was not made. See Code § 27-207. The arresting officers, according to the evidence, did not know of the particular crime having been committed and there was no evidence that such arrests were made because the officers had reasonable grounds to suspect that they had committed a felony. Mere suspicion that some crime, which would include a misdemeanor, may have been committed is insufficient to authorize an arrest without a warrant, and Code Ann. § 27-212 which requires that [358]*358when an arrest shall be made without a warrant the person making the arrest shall without delay convey the offender before the most convenient officer authorized to receive an affidavit and issue a warrant (and that no such imprisonment shall be legal beyond 48 hours), presupposes a legal arrest without a warrant and such Code section cannot be used as a basis for legitimatizing an otherwise illegal arrest. There is no authority in Georgia under which a citizen may be arrested without a warrant and held for investigation to determine if he has committed some crime merely because the person making the arrest has a suspicion that the person arrested may have committed some then unknown crime.

The arrests were illegal and if the evidence obtained after such illegal arrests from the defendants was not voluntarily given then, under the Mapp case, supra, such evidence being the fruits of an illegal search and seizure of the persons, was inadmissible. The police officers, who obtained such evidence, testified they merely asked the prisoners for the evidence and they gave it to them. It is contended that such evidence was freely and voluntarily furnished by the defendants and under such circumstances was admissible. In reply to this contention it is only necessary to refer to the language of Justice Lumpkin in Chattahoochee Brick Co. v. Braswell, 92 Ga. 631, 634 (18 SE 1015): “The plaintiff was a convict, and according to the evidence, his movements were absolutely controlled and directed by a guard, or ‘boss,’ whose orders he was compelled to obey. This guard had and exercised over him the most complete dominion and authority. The plaintiff’s position, so far as the power of the guard was concerned, was more that of a slave than a mere servant, and it is apparent that he dared not disobey any of the guard’s commands.” A prisoner in police custody by reason of an illegal arrest is in no position to refuse to comply with the demands of the officer in whose custody he is placed whether such demand is couched in the language of a polite request or a direct order. If a command, the prisoner is directly forced to comply, and if a request, he is indirectly forced to comply.

As previously shown, the arrests were illegal, and the defend[359]*359ants were directly or indirectly forced to furnish such evidence. Thus the question is presented as to whether the law exemplified in the holding in the Winston case, supra, following prior decisions of the Supreme Court of Georgia is binding upon this court or whether the interpretation placed on the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U. S. Constitution by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Mapp case, supra, is controlling.

This court is bound by the decisions of the Supreme Court of Georgia (Constitution of 1945, Art. VI, Sec. II, Par. VIII; Code Ann. § 2-3708), and under the decision of the Supreme Court in Watkins v. State, 199 Ga. 81, 88 (33 SE2d 325), as to interpretation of the Constitution of the United States by the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Georgia is bound by such decisions, for as was there said: “In Padelford v. Savannah, 14 Ga.

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Bluebook (online)
136 S.E.2d 169, 109 Ga. App. 354, 1964 Ga. App. LEXIS 870, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/raif-v-state-gactapp-1964.