STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
STUART WILLIAMS, APPELLEE
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Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal held that evidence legally seized pursuant to a valid municipal search warrant is admissible in state court prosecutions for violations of state law, even when the warrant was issued by municipal authorities for a municipal ordinance violation of the same conduct. The court reversed the trial court's suppression of narcotics evidence obtained under a municipal search warrant in a state prosecution.
Evidence legally seized pursuant to a valid municipal search warrant may be received in evidence in a state court prosecution, provided the defendant's constitutional rights are not violated. The court held that the trial court erred in suppressing the evidence merely because the warrant was issued by municipal authorities rather than state authorities.
“The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime.”
Establishes the foundational principle that Fourth Amendment protection requires a neutral magistrate's determination of probable cause regardless of which governmental authority (state or municipal) seeks the warrant.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceStuart Williams was charged with a narcotics violation in state court. The same conduct violated both a Fort Lauderdale city ordinance and Florida sta…
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The basic question presented is whether or not contraband (narcotics) seized pursuant to a search warrant issued by a municipal court may be properly used in evidence in a prosecution of a crime in the state court.
As a backdrop, the defendant was charged with a narcotics violation, the offense being identically proscribed by municipal and state law.1 At defendant’s state court trial *332the evidence seized pursuant to the municipal search warrant was suppressed. The state appeals.2 We reverse.
The trial court decision was based on the fact that the search warrant in question was issued by a municipality for the violation of a city ordinance and not in the name of the state for the violation of a state law.
In order to focus properly upon the question, it is necessary to keep certain fundamentals in mind:
1. The Fourth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution and Section 22, Declaration of Rights, Florida Constitution of 1885, F.S.A., and Article 1, § 12, Declaration of Rights, Florida Constitution of 1968, protect private persons from invasion of their premises by governments. In Weeks v. United States, 1913, 232 U.S. 383, 34 S.Ct. 341, 58 L.Ed. 652, it was said that the effect of the prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures was to put government enforcement officials “under limitation and restraint as to the exercise of such power and authority.” Likewise, the objective in obtaining a search warrant is to demonstrate to an independent magistrate the probable cause for its issuance. As stated in Johnson v. United States, 1948, 333 U.S. 10, 68 S.Ct. 367, 92 L.Ed. 436,
“The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime. Any assumption that evidence sufficient to support a magistrate’s disinterested determination to issue a search warrant will justify the officers in making a search without a warrant would reduce the Amendment to a nullity and leave the people’s homes secure only in the discretion of police officers. Crime, even in the privacy of one’s own quarters, is, of course, of grave concern to society, and the law allows such crime to be reached on proper showing. The right of officers to thrust themselves into a home is also a grave concern, not only to the individual but to a society which chooses to dwell in reasonable security and freedom from surveillance. When the right of privacy must reasonably yield to the right of search is, as a rule, to be decided by a judicial officer, not by a policeman or Government enforcement agent.” (Emphasis supplied.)
2. The city was authorized to issue search warrants.3
3. It is not suggested that the municipal warrant was not issued and processed in accordance with law. It was not maintained that the municipal requirements were different from or less strenuous than the state requirements.4 Neither does defendant assert a lack of probable cause or that the search was unreasonable.
4. Very critically, it appears, and it is not suggested to the contrary, that defendant was accorded all of the rights granted to him by the state and federal constitutions.
*333As we look about amongst the decisions and the considerations of public policy, we are unable to see any merit in the position taken by the trial court.
We know that an offense may be a violation of both state and municipal law and that same may be punished by both the municipality and the state without involving double jeopardy.5 This being so, it seems that evidence properly seized by either the state or municipality should be received in evidence by the other. Otherwise the second prosecution would probably be barred as a practical matter unless by some legerdemain there could have been a simultaneous search by the two courts, or, upon completion of prosecution by one court the evidence could be restored to a defendant and re-seized by the second court under its process. This, of course, borders upon the absurd.
We are further mindful that municipal investigations and its search warrants properly issued may uncover evidence of far graver crimes which should as a matter of public policy be tried in the state courts. We think it poor policy and not in the public interest to disqualify such evidence in the state courts and thus, as a practical matter, likely restrict the prosecution to a municipal court prosecution with its limited power to fine and imprison.6 Such construction is not warranted and particularly where, as here emphasized, it is not shown that the receipt of such evidence in the state court jeopardized the defendant’s rights.
It is also true that evidence obtained other than pursuant to state issued search warrants can be admitted into state trials. For instance, evidence obtained pursuant to federal search warrants by federal officers is admissible in state court prosecutions.7 We can not make any meaningful distinction between the proposition of allowing federally seized evidence in state court prosecutions and the procedure advanced by the state in this appeal.
No exact precedent has been shown to us or found. From our survey and analysis we hold that the state should have the right in this case to use the evidence seized under the municipal search warrant. We, therefore, approve the proposition that evidence legally seized pursuant to a valid municipal search warrant may be received in evidence in a state court prosecution, it not having been shown that such procedure violates constitutional rights. Reversed and remanded for proceedings not inconsistent herewith.
Reversed.
McCAIN and OWEN, JJ., concur.
ON PETITION FOR CLARIFICATION
With reference to paragraph two of this court’s opinion the State correctly points out that the evidence seized pursuant to the municipal search warrant was in fact suppressed prior to trial upon pre-trial motion and not, as we stated it, at p. 331 “at *334defendant’s state court trial * * We oblige the State and acknowledge our error for whatever difference it may make, and our opinion is hereby modified to reflect that the evidence was suppressed upon pretrial motion.
WALDEN, McCAIN and OWEN, JJ., concur.
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Stipp v. State, 355 So. 2d 1217 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978)…e law of the State of Florida as a misdemeanor. The affidavit in question stated that the affiant believed the premises in question were being used for the illegal possession of narcotics and that cannabis may be found thereon. In State v. Williams, 227 So. 2d 331 (Fla. 4th DCA 1969) this court held that evidence seized pursuant to a warrant properly issued by a municipal judge was admissible in a State Court felony prosecution.1 Upon the foregoing authority we see no reason why the search warrant issued in t…
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Franklin v. State, 285 So. 2d 32 (Fla. 4th DCA 1973)…r authorization in conjunction with the above mentioned statute and consider the affidavit and warrant in question, we believe that same is justified, rendering the search thereunder and resulting conviction proper. State v. Williams, Fla. App.1969, 227 So. 2d 331. Affirmed. MAGER, J., and FERRIS, JOHN G., Associate Judge, concur.…
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Edsel Heinlein and Clara Heinlein v. Metro. Dade Cnty., 239 So. 2d 635 (Fla. 3d DCA 1970)…unty, Florida has the power and authority to issue a search warrant under the provisions of Section 17-10 of the Code of Metropolitan Dade County, Florida. Cf. Joyner v. City of Lakeland, Fla.1956, 90 So. 2d 118; and State v. Williams, Fla.App.1969, 227 So. 2d 331. The Heinleins next contend that Section 17-10 of the Code is invalid and defective because it excuses or waives the constitutional requirements of “probable cause” as a prerequisite to the issuance of a search warrant. The portion of Section 17-1…
Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited (11 total)
- Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383 (U.S. 1914)
- Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10 (U.S. 1948)
- Camara v. Mun. Court of the City & Cnty. of San Francisco, 387 U.S. 523 (U.S. 1967)
- SEE v. City of Seattle, 387 U.S. 541 (U.S. 1967)
- Meade Hunt v. City of Jacksonville, 34 Fla. 504 (Fla. 1894)
- Thelsen v. McDavid, 34 Fla. 440 (Fla. 1894)
- State of Fla. Ex rel. Daisy Wilson v. Quigg, 154 Fla. 348 (Fla. 1944)
- Bueno v. State, 40 Fla. 160 (Fla. 1898)
- Christian v. State, 176 So. 2d 561 (Fla. 3d DCA 1965)
- Reddick v. State, 104 So. 2d 413 (Fla. 1st DCA 1958)