Welchek v. State

247 S.W. 524, 93 Tex. Crim. 271, 1922 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 705
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 22, 1922
DocketNo. 7136.
StatusPublished
Cited by97 cases

This text of 247 S.W. 524 (Welchek v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Welchek v. State, 247 S.W. 524, 93 Tex. Crim. 271, 1922 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 705 (Tex. 1922).

Opinions

LATTIMORE, Judge.

Appellant was convicted in District Court of Brazoria County of the offense of transporting intoxicating liquor, and his punishment fixed at confinement in the penitentiary for a period of one year.

From the evidence it appears without dispute that appellant was arrested about the 22d day of April, 1921, by the sheriff of Brazoria County, who was accompanied by a number of other gentlemen. They appear to have been waiting and looking for appellant who approached them driving an automobile in which was another party by the name of Kolar. Being stopped by the officer and search made of the automobile, three one-gallon jugs of whisky were found therein. It was admitted that the officer had no search warrant at the time. The liquor was taken in possession by the officer and was held by him at the time of trial and one of the jugs was produced in court and exhibited to witnesses, who testified about its contents.

The question of search and seizure is now being raised in nearly all liquor cases tried in this State, if the facts at all justify the defense in interposing objections relating to such question. Said question' is squarely raised, in the instant case. Before any evidence was offered on the trial appellant made a motion to have said liquor returned to *275 him, and also prayed for an order that the testimony of the officers as to the finding of same be suppressed. This motion was denied and proper exceptions taken, and the matter carried further during the trial by an objection to the introduction of the liquor, and to the testimony of the officer.

In determining the issues thus raised we decline to be drawn into a discussion of any Federal authorities cited on behalf of the appellant, or into any criticism of same unless the question before us be in some way a Federal question and, therefore, subject to review at the hands of the Supreme Court of the United States, or unless the authorities cited be directly pertinent to the. questions involved and be antagonistic to our own views. The cases of Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616, and Weeks v. New York, 232 U. S. 383, and Gouled v. United States. Vol. 10, Advance Opinions U. S. Supreme Court 1920-21, p. 311; go no further than cto decide that in Federal practice private papers of the accused obtained by Federal officers by search and seizure without warrant will, upon motion made, be returned to the owner, and that testimony relative thereto be rejected or suppressed. In our judgment there is nothing involved in the instant case upon principle analogous to any of the cases named, nor is there any Federal question here raised. We can see no possible parity or analogy of principle existing between the law governing the taking of private papers, the undeniable property of the owner, and the law governing a case in which the articles seized is intoxicating liquor in which no property right inures under the express laws of this State. The case of Amos v. United States, Vol. 10 Advance Opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1920-21, p. 316, advances no reasons applicable to a prosecution under our State laws and procedure, but inasmuch as the subject matter of that decision is similar to that of the case now before us we respectfully state that we think the opinion in said case rests upon a misapprehension of the purpose of the Fourth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, which is substantially the same as Section 9, Article 1 of our State Constitution, and that the learned court was not justified in applying to the decision of the facts before it in the Amos case, supra, the principles announced in the Weeks and Boyd cases, supra. This court can in no event follow such an extension of the principle involved in said cases as appears in the attempted application thereof in the Amos case, supra. The importance of the matter presented for discussion and the fact, as above stated, that the question is being so universally raised appears to call for a rather extended discussion and announcement by this court, and for that reason we venture an analysis of some of the cases cited and relied upon by appellant.

The opinion in the Weeks case, supra, is by Mr. Justice Day, who also wrote for the court in Adams v. New York, 192 U. S. 585. We find ourselves unable to follow Justice Day in his effort at dis *276 tinguishing the Weeks case from the Adams case. In the latter case an officers having a search warrant giving him authority to look into the house of Adams for policy slips, found also therein private papers of Adams which he took and which, over objection, were introduced upon the trial of Mr. Adams wherein he was charged with having-in his possession paraphernalia of the gambling game of policy. The complaint on appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States from' the decision of the Supreme Court of New York was that the private papers obtained by the officers and used in evidence were seized and held in violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Federal Constitution. The Fourth Amendment referred to protects the person, houses, papers and effects of citizens of the United States against unreasonable searches and seizures, and provides that if search warrants issue they shall be on affidavit and shall particularly describe the place to be searched and the persdns or things to be seized. The Fifth Amendment referred to provides that no person in a criminal case shall be compelled to be a witness against himself. As illustrating the position of the Supreme Court with reference to the admissibility of the private papers so taken by the officers, we quote from the opinion in the Adams case, supra.

“The objection raised was to receiving in evidence certain private papers. These papers became important as tending to show the custody by the plaintiff in error, with knowledge, of the policy slips. The question was not made in the attempt to resist an unlawful seizure of the private papers of the plaintiff in error, but arose upon objection to the introduction of testimony clearly competent as tending to establish the guilt of the accused of the offense charged. In such cases the weight of authority as well as reason limits the inquiry to the competency of the proffered testimony, and the courts do not stop to inquire as to the means by which the evidence was obtained. The rule is thus laid down in Greenleaf, Vol. 1, Sec. 254a:

Tt may be mentioned in this place that though papers and other subjects of evidence may have been illegally taken from the possession •of the party against whom they are offered or otherwise unlawfully obtained, this is no valid objection to their admissibility if they are pertinent to the issue. The court will not take notice how they were obtained, whether lawfully or unlawfully, nor will it form an issue to determine that question.’

The author is supported by numerous cases. Of them, perhaps the leading one is Commonwealth v. Dana. 2 Met. (Mass.) 329, in which the opinion was given by Mr. Justice Wilde, in the course of which he said:

‘There is another conclusive answer to all these objections.

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Bluebook (online)
247 S.W. 524, 93 Tex. Crim. 271, 1922 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 705, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/welchek-v-state-texcrimapp-1922.