Walters v. Commonwealth

250 S.W. 839, 199 Ky. 182, 1923 Ky. LEXIS 790
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedMay 11, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 250 S.W. 839 (Walters v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walters v. Commonwealth, 250 S.W. 839, 199 Ky. 182, 1923 Ky. LEXIS 790 (Ky. Ct. App. 1923).

Opinion

Opinion op the Court by

Judge Clarke

— Affirming.

The appellant was arrested upon a warrant issued by a justice of the peace, charging him with unlawfully having in his possession intoxicating liquor. He was convicted upon his trial before the justice, and also upon the trial of Ms appeal to the circuit court. By this appeal from the latter judgment, he complains that the court erred in overruling his demurrer to the warrant, and in the admission of the evidence of his guilt, all of which was obtained under a search warrant.

The record shows that after the warrant of arrest had been amended on its face in the circuit court, defendant filed a demurrer thereto, and same was. overruled. It is not contended the warrant was defective after its amendment, but it is insisted that because there is no order of record permitting the commonwealth’s attorney to amend it, the amendment was unauthorized, and that this question was- raised'by'the demurrer. To this we cannot [185]*185agree. The demurrer simply raised the question of the sufficiency of the warrant as amended.

It is. a settled rule of practice in this jurisdiction, as is conceded, that a warrant of arrest may be amended upon the trial thereof in the circuit court upon appeal from an inferior court in which the prosecution was begun. And where, as here, an order of the circuit court recites the fact that it was amended upon its face, this court will presume, nothing appearing to the contrary, not only that the warrant was amended with the permission of the court, but that it was not objected to by tbe defendant.

We certainly cannot assume that the court did not sanction what the record recites was done, or that the defendant did not have knowledge of and consent to the same, there being no record of any objection by him.

All of the evidence of defendant’s guilt was obtained by federal officers upon a search of his place of residence under a search warrant issued by a commissioner of the federal district court, and it is the contention of the appellant that none of this evidence was admissible, (a) because evidence obtained under a federal search warrant, even if valid, is not available on a prosecution in the state courts, and (b) because both the search' warrant and the affidavit upon which it was issued were fatally defective:

We .take it as settled that the immunities of the fourth and fifth amendments to the federal Constitution from unreasonable search and seizure, and from being compelled to give evidence against one’s self, relate-only to the activities of the federal government and its officers, and that these rights are not within the privileges and immunities which the fourteenth amendment protects against state action, except in so far as due process of law mav be concerned. Twining v. New Jersey, 211 U. S. 78, 53 L. Ed. 97; Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383, 58 L. Ed. 652, L. R. A. 1915B 834, Ann. Cas .1915C 1177; Silverthone Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U. S. 385, 64 L. Ed. 319; Gouled v. United States, 255 U. S. 298, 65 L. Ed. 647; Amos v. United States, 255 U. S. 313, 65 L. Ed. 654, and cases cited in the note to Johnson v. State, 19 A. L. R. 641. We also think.it is clear that the question of due process of law is not here- involved;

But sections ten and eleven of the state Constitution forbid unreasonable searches and seizures and compulsory self-incrimination in substantially the same terms [186]*186as do the fourth and fifth amendments., supra, and beginning with Youman v. Commonwealth, 189 Ky. 152, 224 S. W. 860, we uniformly have held that these guaranties of the state Constitution are denied by the search of a citizen of the state, or his protected property,.,by a state official without a valid search warrant, and that evidence so obtained is inadmissible against him in a criminal action.

It is manifest, however, that the immunities of the state Constitution are limited to activities of the state government and its officials, and cannot protect a citizen of the state, or his property, from search by a federal officer acting under federal authority. We might even say, and sustain it by authority, that we are not concerned at all with how federal officials obtain competent evidence they may possess of a defendant’s guilt of an infraction of a state law, just as this, and other courts uniformly have held with reference to private citizens.

But as the same act of a citizen of both a state aild ■ the United States renders him amenable to both sovereignties under which he must live, if each but protects him under similar guaranties of their respective constitutions against unlawful activities of its own officers, it would result that state officials might search a citizen without a warrant and the evidence thus unlawfully obtained be used against him in the federal courts, and he likewise would be without protection in the state courts against unreasonable searches by federal officers, other than by an action for damages, which both the courts of this Commonwealth and of the-United State have held inadequate.

Surely the same guaranties by the dual sovereignty mean more than that, and they should be so construed as- more effectively to protect the citizen’s immunities from 'governmental interference, which each within its sphere has declared sacred.

To us it seems possible that this end may be attained only by holding, either that- no prosecution in the state courts can be -sustained by evidence obtained by federal officers -acting under authority or color of office, or that such evidence will be incompetent unless obtained under a valid federal search warrant, as is the rule with reference to state officers.

' If the former plan were adopted, the state trial courts would be relieved- of the necessity of passing upon the legality of acts of federal officers upon a collateral in[187]*187quiry, but it does not seem to us reasonable or right that either government should be precluded from using evidence legally obtained, simply because discovered by officers of the other, and it certainly cannot be maintained that the provisions of either the state or federal Constitution mean that a search under a valid 'search warrant, issued by either sovereignty, is an unreasonable search.

We therefore conclude that the evidence introduced against defendant was competent, provided the federal search warrant under which it was obtained was valid, but not-otherwise.

Its validity, of course, depends upon the federal law, and must be tested thereby, but .as to the method of making that test, we do not feel bound by the practice prevailing in the federal courts, which is .materially different from the rule obtaining in this state for testing the validity of search warrants, issued by state authorities.

Most state courts obviate the whole trouble we have encountered in this and similar cases by rule of practice which refuses to halt a criminal trial to investigate the collateral issue of how competent' evidence was obtained, and admits such evidence, however obtained. But we have adopted, in part, the rule prevailing in the federal courts.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
250 S.W. 839, 199 Ky. 182, 1923 Ky. LEXIS 790, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walters-v-commonwealth-kyctapp-1923.