State v. Johnston

511 N.W.2d 426, 1993 Iowa App. LEXIS 156, 1993 WL 562923
CourtCourt of Appeals of Iowa
DecidedNovember 29, 1993
Docket92-1701
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 511 N.W.2d 426 (State v. Johnston) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Johnston, 511 N.W.2d 426, 1993 Iowa App. LEXIS 156, 1993 WL 562923 (iowactapp 1993).

Opinion

*427 SACKETT, Judge.

Defendant-appellant Jeffrey Wallace Johnston appeals his judgment and sentence following conviction for possession of a schedule II controlled substance. He contends the district court should have suppressed evidence seized under search warrants and he was not properly sentenced. We affirm.

Defendant was convicted following trial to the district court on stipulated evidence. The evidence supporting defendant’s conviction was seized under four search warrants.

The first of the four warrants was issued on the basis of information supplied to a police officer by an unidentified person. Defendant contends there was not probable cause to issue the first search warrant and the first warrant was not valid because the magistrate failed to comply with the provision of Iowa Code section 808.3 (1991). He contends the subsequent warrants were not valid because they were fruits of the first warrant.

We first address defendant’s claim that the magistrate failed to follow the directives of Iowa Code section 808.3 in issuing the first warrant. The warrant was issued on the basis of information supplied by a person who did not appear or testify before the magistrate and whose name was not made known to the magistrate. This person under definition is a confidential informant.

The statute governing search warrant applications provides that when the grounds for issuance of a warrant are supplied by an informant the magistrate:

[Sjhall include a determination that the information appears credible either because sworn testimony indicates that the informant has given reliable information on previous occasions or because the informant or the information provided by the informant appears credible for reasons specified by the magistrate.

Iowa Code § 808.3.

The required findings need only be made as to confidential informants. State v. Iowa Dist. Court, 472 N.W.2d 621, 623 (Iowa 1991); State v. Weir, 414 N.W.2d 327, 331 (Iowa 1987); see also State v. Sykes, 412 N.W.2d 578, 583 (Iowa 1987).

The informant had not supplied reliable information on a prior occasion. The magistrate failed to advance any written reasons detailing why the informant appears credible. Iowa Code section 808.3 makes the magistrate’s credibility findings obligatory, not optional. Iowa Dist. Court, 472 N.W.2d at 624. The duty is mandatory. Id. The object of the statute is to ensure warrants are issued only when the information is reliable and, when the warrant is issued on information from a confidential informant unknown to the magistrate, the magistrate’s findings go to the essence of the statute. See id.

The State, while recognizing the magistrate’s omission of findings of credibility, contends the Iowa court has only required substantial compliance with section 808.3, and there was substantial compliance. The State contends there was substantial compliance because .the findings of the magistrate include:

The undersigned has relied, at least in part, on the information supplied by a confidential informant (who need not be named) to the peace officer(s) shown on Attaehment(s) A and Informant: Attachment.

The attachment the magistrate referred to was a statement of the police officer who had talked to the informant. The statement showed the police officer determined the informant reliable because the police officer found the informant to be a mature individual, a student in good standing, and an individual having no motivation to falsify information and no known criminal record.

The State relies on Sykes, 412 N.W.2d at 578, to support its position that the reference to the attachment amounted to a finding by the magistrate that the informant was credible. In Sykes, 412 N.W.2d at 582, the court said a magistrate’s signature at the bottom of an officer’s affidavit indicated the magistrate adopted and approved the instrument. The court determined when the magistrate signed the officer’s affidavit, the magistrate adopted *428 the officer’s statement that the informant was reliable. Id.

The magistrate in this case did not endorse credibility findings. The most the magistrate did was identify information given.

We determine there was no compliance with the directive of section 808.3 that the magistrate make a finding of credibility. To condone such lack of compliance with the statute would amount to judicial repeal. Iowa Dist. Court, 472 N.W.2d at 625. The failure of the magistrate to make findings as to the informant’s credibility invalidates the first warrant.

The State contends even if warrants were not valid, the evidence seized in the search should not be suppressed because the officers searched in good faith and in reliance on the warrant.

The rule requiring the exclusion at a criminal trial of evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment is a judicially created remedy designed to safeguard Fourth Amendment rights generally and not a personal constitutional right of the party aggrieved. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 223, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2324, 76 L.Ed.2d 527, 538 (1983); United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 348, 94 S.Ct. 613, 620, 38 L.Ed.2d 561, 571 (1974). The question whether the exclusionary rule’s remedy is appropriate in a particular context is separate from the question of whether the Fourth Amendment rights of the party seeking to invoke the rule were violated by police conduct. See Gates, 462 U.S. at 223, 103 S.Ct. at 2324, 76 L.Ed.2d at 538-39.

Suppression of evidence obtained pursuant to a warrant should be ordered only on a case-by-case basis and only in cases where exclusion will further the purpose of the exclusionary rule. United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 918, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 3418, 82 L.Ed.2d 677, 695 (1984).

When an officer acts in good faith under a warrant that is not technically sufficient, there appear to be reasons for finding that excluding the evidence will not further the exclusionary rule in any way. See Leon, 468 U.S. at 920-21, 104 S.Ct. at 3419, 82 L.Ed.2d at 697.

In Iowa Dist. Court, 472 N.W.2d at 624, the court rejected the state’s argument that applying the dictates of Leon, a technical problem with the warrant should not lead to suppression of evidence. In Iowa Dist. Court the supreme court rejected Leon

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Related

State v. Beckett
532 N.W.2d 751 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1995)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
511 N.W.2d 426, 1993 Iowa App. LEXIS 156, 1993 WL 562923, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-johnston-iowactapp-1993.