Waller v. State

303 S.E.2d 437, 251 Ga. 124
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJune 1, 1983
Docket39385
StatusPublished
Cited by47 cases

This text of 303 S.E.2d 437 (Waller v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Waller v. State, 303 S.E.2d 437, 251 Ga. 124 (Ga. 1983).

Opinions

Clarke, Justice.

Appellants and others were indicted and charged with violation of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (OCGA § 16-14-1 et seq. (Code Ann. § 26-3401 et seq.)) and convicted of the offenses of commercial gambling and communicating gambling information. This appeal does not concern the sufficiency of the evidence except in regard to the question of venue.

The evidence at trial showed that appellants participated, with hundreds of others on a lower level, in a lottery ring which involved gambling on the volume of stocks and bonds traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The information was transmitted by telephone and telecopier and stored in a microcomputer maintained by appellant Cole.

(1) The basis of this court’s jurisdiction is that appellant has made a facial attack on OCGA § 16-14-7 (f) (Code Ann. § 26-3405) of the forfeiture provision of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (hereinafter RICO). The state argues that jurisdiction is not in this court because the constitutional challenge was not properly raised in the trial court and because appellants have no standing to raise the constitutionality of the forfeiture procedure since the evidence presented at trial was seized pursuant to search warrants. We find that the constitutional issue was properly raised at trial and that appellants have standing to raise it on appeal.

[125]*125Appellants contend that the statute is unconstitutional because it authorizes seizure of “ [a]ll property of every kind used or intended for use in the course of, derived from, or realized through a pattern of racketeering activity” prior to filing a complaint for a RICO in rem forfeiture proceeding and prior to the obtaining of a writ of seizure. Appellants insist that this statute is on its face violative of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

We find that the provision in question, OCGA § 16-14-7 (f) (Code Ann. § 26-3405) is constitutional on its face. A seizure under this section is allowed only in carefully prescribed circumstances. The seizure must be incident to a lawful arrest, search or inspection, and the officer must have probable cause to believe that the property is subject to forfeiture or that the property will be lost or destroyed if not seized. There is no Fourth Amendment problem with the seizure or the fruits of a lawful search or inspection. The statute on its face provides that the search or inspection must be lawful. This requires that the search be pursuant to a warrant, incident to a lawful arrest, or in the presence of other exigent circumstances, which would render the search or inspection “lawful.” By definition, therefore, the statute complies with the Fourth Amendment. For a discussion of exigent circumstances, see New York v. Belton, 453 U. S. 454 (101 SC 2860, 69 LE2d 768) (1981); Chimel v. California, 395 U. S. 752 (89 SC 2034, 23 LE2d 685) (1969); Warden v. Hayden, 387 U. S. 294 (87 SC 1642, 18 LE2d 782) (1967).

Seizure of contraband, evidence, or weapons not listed on a search warrant by an officer executing an arrest warrant or search warrant does not violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment even though there has been no notice and hearing. Calero-Toledo v. Pearson Yacht Leasing Co., 416 U. S. 663 (94 SC 2080, 40 LE2d 452) (1974). See also Fuentes v. Shevin, 407 U. S. 67 (92 SC 1983, 32 LE2d 556) (1972).

(2) The next question before us is whether the statute was applied in an unconstitutional manner as to appellants. According to appellants, officers acting under search warrants went far beyond the scope of the warrants in conducting general searches and seizing all manner of personal items including jewelry, letters, school report cards, unopened strong boxes and other items which were then sifted at leisure by the police in a search for evidence. Such items as were unlawfully seized were excluded from evidence at trial pursuant to a motion to suppress. It is appellants’ contention that because certain property seized was outside the warrant, all of the evidence should have been suppressed. Appellants rely on Marron v. United States, 275 U. S. 192 (48 SC 74, 72 LE 231) (1927), United States v. LaVallee, 391 F2d 123 (2d Cir. 1968), and United States v. Pinero, 329 FSupp. [126]*126992 (S.D. N.Y. 1971), in support of their position. In Marrón v. United States, the court held that under the Fourth Amendment a search warrant describing intoxicating liquors and articles for their manufacture did not authorize seizure of a ledger and bills of account. However, finding that the ledger and bills were seized incident to a lawful arrest, the court affirmed the appellant’s conviction. In United States v. LaVallee and United States v. Pinero, the warrant did not describe the items at issue. Since the search was not conducted under any exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment, the items not described in the warrant were suppressed. These cases stand for the rule that evidence improperly seized is inadmissible. There is no requirement that where evidence has been lawfully seizéd it must be suppressed if officers unlawfully seized other material, unless the unlawfully seized evidence led to the discovery of the evidence which was admitted.

(3) Appellants contend that their convictions should be overturned because the term of court at which they should have been tried under their demands for a speedy trial had expired. OCGA § 17-7-170 (b) (formerly Code Ann. § 27-1901) provides: “If the person is not tried when the demand is made or at the next succeeding regular court term thereafter, provided at both court terms there were juries impaneled and qualified to try him, he shall be absolutely discharged and acquitted of the offense charged in the indictment or accusation.” For demand to cause the time to begin to run there must be a jury impaneled and qualified to try the defendant. DeKrasner v. State, 54 Ga. App. 41 (187 SE 402) (1936). Here the trial court found that there was no jury impaneled to try the case during the term in which appellants filed their demands. Consequently, the time allowed by the two-term trial requirement did not begin to run until the term following that during which the demand was filed. In the absence of clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, we will not disturb the trial court’s finding that no jury qualified to try appellants was impaneled during the term in which the demand was filed. Wilson v. State, 156 Ga. App. 53 (274 SE2d 95) (1980). See also, State v. McDonald, 242 Ga. 487 (249 SE2d 212) (1978).

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Bluebook (online)
303 S.E.2d 437, 251 Ga. 124, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waller-v-state-ga-1983.