WARREN
v.
MISSISSIPPI

U.S. | 1979-11-13
No. 79-5114
with whom Mr. Justice Brennan and Mr. Justice Stewart join,
444 U.S. 956 Supreme Court of the United States (1979) Positive Treatment
Cited by 8 cases
Dissent
Mr. Justice White,

Mr. Justice White,

with whom Mr. Justice Brennan and Mr. Justice Stewart join,

dissenting.

I dissent from the denial of certiorari. Here, while on their way to investigate a reported disturbance and possible burglary in progress, squad car officers encountered a pedestrian, the petitioner, a block or two from the reported disturbance. He was splattered with blood and had a bloody hand. He explained that he had been in a fight in a nightclub and was headed for home. Some of his answers apparently were improbable, for the officers placed him in the squad car and proceeded to their destination, where investigation immediately revealed the victim of a brutal and bloody murder. When a detective arrived, he placed petitioner under arrest, took him to the police station and sent his clothes to a laboratory for examination. He was later charged with murder. Because he thought petitioner’s initial detention had been unlawful, the trial judge suppressed any evidence which was gathered between the time petitioner was first placed in the squad car and the time he was formally arrested. Finding, however, that once the murder had been discovered there was probable cause for the arrest, he refused to suppress the petitioner’s clothes, the results of their examination, and any other evidence that was the fruit of the arrest. Petitioner was convicted.

The Supreme Court of Mississippi affirmed, holding the challenged evidence admissible on the ground that it was the product of a proper investigative stop and detention, rather than on the ground of a valid arrest based on probable cause. The latter would be defensible; but the former, as I understand the holding, cannot be squared with our relevant cases, the most recent being Dunaway v. New York, 442 U. S. 200 (1979), which was not issued until after the decision below. It is frequently said that we review judgments, not opinions, and it is true that certiorari is sometimes denied when a judgment can be defended on a ground not relied on by the court below. But to avoid possible misapprehension by Mississippi law enforcement officers that investigative detentions on less than probable cause are constitutionally acceptable, I would at least vacate the judgment of the Mississippi Supreme Court and remand it to that court for reconsideration in the light of Dunaway v. New York, supra.

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  • Washington v. Watkins, 655 F.2d 1346 (5th Cir. 1981)
    …rgument that thus far has been accepted by only one of the Court’s nine Justices, and that at best would have left his client in prison for life without possibility of parole. . The State cites Warren v. State, 369 So. 2d 483 (Miss.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 956, 100 S.Ct. 436, 62 L.Ed.2d 328 (1979); Evans v. State, 315 So. 2d 1 (Miss. 1975); and Rayburn v. State, 312 So. 2d 454 (Miss. 1975), as support for the proposition that under Mississippi law, specific objections to jury instructions must be made at…
  • Duncan v. Merrill Lynch, 646 F.2d 1020 (5th Cir. 1981)
    …lateral order test set forth in Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, supra, 437 U.S. at 468, 98 S.Ct. at 2457, which restated the Cohen requirements. . In North American Acceptance Corp. v. Arnall, Golden & Gregory, 593 F. 2d 642 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 956, 100 S.Ct. 436, 62 L.Ed.2d 328 (1979), this court held that an order denying a motion to disqualify class counsel is not immediately appealable under § 1291. Merrill Lynch argues that under the principles announced in Arnall, an order granting a mot…
  • Woolen v. Surtran Taxicabs, Inc., 684 F.2d 324 (5th Cir. 1982)
    …issues could not be separately decided, there could be no separate final order for purposes of § 1291 on the intertwined disqualification issue. In North American Acceptance Corp. v. Arnall, Golden & Gregory, 593 F. 2d 642 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 956, 100 S.Ct. 436, 62 L.Ed.2d 328 (1979), we also determined that the denial of a motion to disqualify counsel within the class action context was not appealable because it was not conclusive or effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment.…

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