State v. Smith

202 N.E.2d 215, 94 Ohio Law. Abs. 271, 29 Ohio Op. 2d 437, 1964 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 300
CourtCuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
DecidedJune 3, 1964
DocketNo. 79437
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 202 N.E.2d 215 (State v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Smith, 202 N.E.2d 215, 94 Ohio Law. Abs. 271, 29 Ohio Op. 2d 437, 1964 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 300 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1964).

Opinion

McMonagle, J.

Tbe defendant herein was indicted by the Cuyahoga County Grand Jury charged with violation of the Ohio Narcotic Drug Act, specifically Sections 3719.09, 3719.172 and 3719.20(A), Revised Code.

Prior to trial, the defendant moved the Court for an order suppressing evidence procured by the Cleveland Police Department at about 8:15 P. M. on October 24, 1963, when they searched the room where the defendant was residing at 2457 East 83rd Street, Cleveland, Ohio, and his person and effects.

The motion to suppress is based upon defendant’s contentions that:

(1) The officers unlawfully, illegally and unconstitutionally entered the defendant’s room, which constituted his home, and conducted an illegal search and seizure.

(2) The officers did not have a search warrant or any other process for the arrest of the defendant and the search of his property.

(3) The entry by the officers into defendant’s premises was not in accordance with the laws pertaining thereto.

The State acknowledges that the officers did not have a search or arrest warrant at the time of entry and contend that the motion to suppress, however, should be overruled. The State contends that the entry and search were valid because of the provisions of Section 3719.22, Revised Code, which states that police officers were authorized “. . . to enter and search any room, rooms or other place wherein a violation of (State Drug Act) is believed to exist.” (Emphasis added.)

It is further the contention of the State that the evidence in question was not obtained by a search and seizure in violation of the Constitution — that the search which uncovered the evidence was a reasonable one made in connection with a lawful arrest.

It is the State’s position that the police had reasonable grounds to believe, and did believe, by virtue of information given to them by responsible persons that the defendant’s room was then occupied by the defendant who had committed a felony a few days prior to October 24, 1963, that is, he had unlawfully sold narcotics; that, at the time of entry, the de[275]*275fendant was committing a felony in bis room by either possessing a narcotic drug for sale or actually selling a narcotic drug contrary to law, and that the officers entered his room for the purpose of arresting him for investigation on suspicion of violation of the narcotics ’ act; that the police officers had the right contemporaneous with the said arrest, and without a search warrant, to search the defendant and the place where the arrest was made and all evidence procured thereby may be properly presented to the Court.

Defendant’s motion is based upon the rights guaranteed all people by the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and by its counterpart, Article I, Section XIV of the Constitution of Ohio (which provisions are almost identical), and also the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States — in accordance with the constructions and comments thereto provided — in the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.

The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States provides as follows:

SEARCHES AND SEIZURES

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. (Emphasis added.)

The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States provides as follows:

RIGHTS OF CITIZENS

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the latos. (Emphasis added.)

Article I, Section 14 of the Constitution of Ohio provides as follows:

[276]*276 SEARCH WARRANTS AND GENERAL WARRANTS

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and possessions, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, particularly describing the place to be searched and the person and things to be seized. (See Const. 1802, Art. VIII, See. 5.) (Emphasis added.)

The Supreme Court of the United States, in the Mapp ease, has set aside the previously existing rule in the State of Ohio that evidence obtained in an illegal search and seizure may be received in evidence.

The law by which all courts of the United States, that is, Federal and State, are now bound is that as pronounced in the case of Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S., 643, 81 Sup. Ct. 1684, 6 L. Ed. (2d), 1081 (1961), 86 Abs., 513. This case originated in the Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. On June 19, 1961, the Supreme Court of the United States in the Mapp case overruled Wolf v. Colorado, 338 U. S., 25 (1949), in which it held:

. . . that in a prosecution in a State court for a State crime the Fourteenth Amendment does not forbid the admission of evidence obtained by an unreasonable search and seizure, and said, at page 654:

. . . Today we once again examine Wolf’s constitutional documentation of the right to privacy free from unreasonable state intrusion, and, after its dozen years on our books, are led by it to close the only courtroom door remaining open to evidence secured by official lawlessness in flagrant abuse of that basic right, reserved to all persons as a specific guarantee against that very same unlawful conduct. We hold that all evidence obtained by searches and seizures in violation of the Constitution is, by that same authority, inadmissible in a state court. (Emphasis added last sentence.)

Since the Fourth Amendment’s right of privacy has been declared enforceable against the States through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth, it is enforceable against them by the same sanction of exclusion as is used against the Federal Government.

[277]*277Further, the Court said, at page 653:

. . . Because there can be no fixed formula, we are admittedly met with “recurring questions of the reasonableness of searches,” but less is not to be expected when dealing with a Constitution, and, at any rate, “ (r)easonableness is in the first instance for the (trial court) ... to determine.” United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U. S., 56, 63 (1950).

If the motion of the defendant is well taken, it should be granted in accordance with the command of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Mapp case. The elimination of this evidence would probably make it impossible for the State of Ohio to prove the corpus delicti.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
202 N.E.2d 215, 94 Ohio Law. Abs. 271, 29 Ohio Op. 2d 437, 1964 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-smith-ohctcomplcuyaho-1964.