State v. Campbell

948 So. 2d 725, 2007 WL 174358
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 25, 2007
DocketSC05-1844
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 948 So. 2d 725 (State v. Campbell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Campbell, 948 So. 2d 725, 2007 WL 174358 (Fla. 2007).

Opinion

948 So.2d 725 (2007)

STATE of Florida, Petitioner,
v.
Gregg CAMPBELL, Respondent.

No. SC05-1844.

Supreme Court of Florida.

January 25, 2007.

Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL; Celia A. Terenzio, Bureau Chief, and Monique E. L'Italien, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, FL, for Petitioner.

Samuel R. Halpern, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Respondent.

PER CURIAM.

We initially accepted jurisdiction to review State v. Campbell, 911 So.2d 192 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005), a decision by the Fourth District Court of Appeal certifying a question to this Court as one involving great public importance. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. However, during oral argument, the parties conceded that the facts as outlined in the Fourth District's decision are materially different from those depicted in the trial court record. Neither of the parties filed a motion for rehearing with the Fourth District to address these materially disparate facts. We conclude that reviewing a case under such circumstances would place the instant proceeding in the procedural posture of a rehearing. This Court lacks jurisdiction to rehear a decision issued by a district court; therefore, we exercise our discretion and discharge jurisdiction. Accordingly, this review proceeding is dismissed.

It is so ordered.

LEWIS, C.J., and ANSTEAD, PARIENTE, and QUINCE, JJ., concur.

PARIENTE, J., concurs with an opinion.

WELLS, J., dissents with an opinion, in which CANTERO and BELL, JJ., concur.

PARIENTE, J., concurring.

I concur in the decision to exercise our discretion to discharge jurisdiction. The certified question is premised on the assumption that the officer retained Campbell's driver's license and obtained consent to search his car after completing the warrant check. We now know this scenario is inconsistent with the testimony during the suppression hearing. Our discretionary *726 review of district court decisions certifying questions of great public importance under article V, section 3(b)(4), Florida Constitution, is limited to decisions that rule on the questions certified. Salgat v. State, 652 So.2d 815, 815 (Fla.1995). We should not use our certified question jurisdiction to correct errors of fact on which a certified question is based and then compose our own question of great public importance based on the actual facts. Issues involving temporary detentions and warrant checks are reaching us with such frequency that it is unlikely the question certified by the Fourth District will long evade our review. See, e.g., Golphin v. State, 945 So.2d 1174 (Fla. 2006); State v. Frierson, 926 So.2d 1139 (Fla.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 734, 166 L.Ed. 2d 570 (2006); State v. Baez, 894 So.2d 115 (Fla.2004); State v. Diaz, 850 So.2d 435 (Fla.2003). I would prefer to reach that question when it actually comports with the facts.

Further, I strongly disagree with Justice Wells' view that this is a case in which, assuming a Fourth Amendment violation, application of the exclusionary rule would be in question. Justice Wells relies on statements concerning the societal costs of excluding evidence as a penalty for Fourth Amendment violations in Hudson v. Michigan, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 2159, 165 L.Ed.2d 56 (2006), and in United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984). Neither case supports the broad rollback of exclusionary rule jurisprudence suggested in his dissent.

In Leon, the Court held that, subject to several qualifications, the exclusionary rule does not apply to evidence acquired in reasonable reliance on a search warrant later ruled invalid. 468 U.S. at 921-22, 104 S.Ct. 3405. This is a very narrow exception to the exclusionary rule, one that rests on the "detached scrutiny of a neutral magistrate, which is a more reliable safeguard than the hurried judgment of a law enforcement officer." Id. at 913-14, 104 S.Ct. 3405 (quoting United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 9, 97 S.Ct. 2476, 53 L.Ed.2d 538 (1977)). This Court has recognized that the Leon "good faith" exception is limited to cases involving search warrants. See State v. Peterson, 739 So.2d 561, 564 (Fla.1999) ("The `good faith' exception becomes applicable only upon finding that the affidavit for a search warrant was insufficient to establish probable cause.").

In Hudson, the Court declined to apply the exclusionary rule to violations of the "knock-and-announce" rule governing residential search warrants. 126 U.S. at 2165. The Court stated:

[C]ases excluding the fruits of unlawful warrantless searches say nothing about the appropriateness of exclusion to vindicate the interests protected by the knock-and-announce requirement. Until a valid warrant has issued, citizens are entitled to shield "their persons, houses, papers, and effects," U.S. Const., Amdt. 4, from the government's scrutiny. Exclusion of the evidence obtained by a warrantless search vindicates that entitlement. The interests protected by the knock-and-announce requirement are quite different—and do not include the shielding of potential evidence from the government's eyes.

Id. (emphasis supplied) (citations omitted). Hudson concerned a Fourth Amendment violation in the execution of a valid warrant, and the Court in no way receded from application of the exclusionary rule to evidence obtained without a warrant.

This case involves a warrantless search and seizure, a situation in which evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment remains subject to suppression as "fruit of the poisonous tree" under Wong *727 Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963), and its progeny. In the absence of a probable cause determination by a detached magistrate, exclusion of evidence continues to vindicate persons' entitlement to the shield against government intrusion provided by the Fourth Amendment. Accordingly, I believe Justice Wells is in error in suggesting both that the exclusionary rule can be abandoned in the case of a warrantless search or seizure and that this result would be consistent with United States Supreme Court precedent.

WELLS, J., dissenting.

I do not agree with discharging jurisdiction. There is no question that this Court has jurisdiction since the case is here on a certified question by the Fourth District Court of Appeal. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.

There is likewise no question that the Fourth District was in error as to material facts in the case. As the majority states, the parties agreed at oral argument before this Court that the Fourth District was in error. However, I would not ignore the error and allow the erroneous decision to stand when this Court has jurisdiction to correct it. The fact that neither party filed a motion for rehearing in the Fourth District does not affect this Court's jurisdiction.

The factual error is in the Fourth District's statement:

Campbell handed over his driver's license upon request. While two detectives stayed next to his vehicle, the third conducted a warrant check. The check came back clean, but instead of returning his license and concluding the encounter, one of the detectives asked whether Campbell had any guns or drugs in the vehicle.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
948 So. 2d 725, 2007 WL 174358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-campbell-fla-2007.