United States v. Jack Leroy Underwood

717 F.2d 482, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 16397
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided September 30, 1983·No. 81-1451·Published·Cited by 93 cases

Opinion

BROWNING, Chief Judge.

A federal arrest warrant was issued for Underwood, an escaped federal prisoner. Acting on the basis of this warrant, state officers entered a house in which Underwood was staying, arrested him, and seized weapons in plain view. The district court granted defendant’s motion to suppress the weapons on the ground that entry without a search warrant identifying the house in which Underwood was found violated the fourth amendment. We hold that reversal is required by Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980), rejecting the contention that the rule stated in Payton is dictum we need not follow.

I.

Underwood escaped from a federal correctional institution in Kentucky. A United States magistrate issued a warrant for his arrest. Because Underwood had resided in Delano, California, federal authorities informed the Delano police of his escape. A reliable informant told Delano police that Underwood could be found at a house police believed to be the residence of a man named Johnny Duckett. The informant said Duckett told him that Duckett and Underwood “got cranked up” the night before and Underwood was “crashed” at the Duckett residence. Acting under the au-' thority of the federal arrest warrant, but without obtaining a search warrant, the police surrounded the house, announced their presence, and hearing no response, made a nonconsensual entry through a slightly open door. The officers found Underwood in the house, armed with a hand gun. While handcuffing Underwood, one of the officers noticed, in plain view, a partially opened black coffin-shaped box containing a shotgun and ammunition.

Underwood was indicted for possession of an unregistered firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon. He moved to suppress the weapons. The district court held that the arrest warrant was valid and the officers had probable cause to believe Underwood was in the house when they entered. Nevertheless, the court granted the motion to suppress on the ground that “the entry [of the house] not being authorized by a search warrant, was constitutionally impermissible.” The government contends the rule announced in Payton requires reversal. 1 We agree.

In Payton, the Supreme Court explicitly rejected the argument that a separate search warrant based on probable cause to believe a suspect was in a particular dwelling was necessary to protect the interests of the person named in an arrest warrant. “Thus, for Fourth Amendment purposes, an arrest warrant founded on probable cause implicitly carries with it the limited authority to enter a dwelling in which the suspect lives when there is reason to believe the suspect is within.” 445 U.S. at 603, 100 S.Ct. at 1388.

II.

There are only two possible grounds for avoiding the application of the rule announced in Payton to this case.

The first is that the person named in the arrest warrant in Payton was in his *484 own home, while in this case the person named in the arrest warrant, Underwood, was in the home of a third person. For the purpose of determining whether Underwood’s rights were violated, nothing turns on this difference. A person has no greater right of privacy in another’s home than in his own. If an arrest warrant and reason to believe the person named in the warrant is present are sufficient to protect that person’s fourth amendment privacy rights in his own home, they necessarily suffice to protect his privacy rights in the home of another. United States v. Clifford, 664 F.2d 1090, 1093 (8th Cir.1981).

The right of a third party not named in the arrest warrant to the privacy of his home may not be invaded without a search warrant, Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204, 101 S.Ct. 1642, 68 L.Ed.2d 38 (1981). But this right is personal to the home owner and cannot be asserted vicariously by the person named in the arrest warrant. See Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. at 218-19, 101 S.Ct. at 1650-51; Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 133-34, 99 S.Ct. 421, 424-25, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978). “[Defendants charged with crimes of possession may only claim the benefits of the exclusionary rule if their own Fourth Amendment rights have in fact been violated.” United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 85, 100 S.Ct. 2547, 2549, 65 L.Ed.2d 619 (1980).

III.

The second possible ground for avoiding the application to this case of the Supreme Court’s positive statement in Payton that an arrest warrant plus reason to believe the suspect is present are sufficient to permit entry without a search warrant is that the statement was merely dictum that need not be followed by this court because the officers in Payton had neither a search warrant nor an arrest warrant. This restrictive interpretation of Payton has been rejected by every court of appeals 2 and every state court 3 that has considered the issue. We reject it as well.

The question before the Court in Payton was the constitutionality of New York statutes that authorized police to enter a private residence without a warrant to make a felony arrest. The State argued that only a search warrant based on probable cause to believe the suspect was in the home at the time could adequately protect the privacy interest at stake, and because it was manifestly impractical to obtain such a warrant, no warrant at all was constitutionally required. The Supreme Court rejected the State’s argument on the ground that the impracticality of obtaining a search warrant did not require a holding that no warrant was required. While a search warrant would afford greater protection, the Court reasoned that an arrest warrant would afford sufficient protection to the person named in the warrant to satisfy the fourth amendment. 445 U.S. at 602-03, 100 S.Ct. at 1388. The Supreme Court held that arrests under the statute were invalid, not because no warrant was obtained, but “[b]ecause no arrest warrant was obtained .... ” Id. at 603, 100 S.Ct. at 1388 (emphasis added). This is the holding of the case.

If there was any doubt as to this interpretation of Payton, it was laid to rest by Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. at 214, n. 7, 101 S.Ct. at 1648, n. 7 and Michigan v. *485 Summers, 452 U.S. 692, 704, 101 S.Ct. 2587, 2595, 69 L.Ed.2d 340 (1981). In both cases the Court treated this language in Payton as part of the

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