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55 Ala. App. 402

316 So.2d 233

Kelley v. State

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama · decided 1975-04-01

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“`There is no common law authorizing search warrants. Statutes authorizing searches are strictly construed against the prosecution [and] in favor of the liberty of the citizen.'”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 784 So. 2d 357 - Ex Parte Tyson

“When a prosecutor seeks to rely upon consent to justify the lawfulness of a search, he has the burden of proving that the consent was, in fact, freely and voluntarily given.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 396 So. 2d 125 - Murray v. State

Relies on Bumper v. North Carolina · Fahy v. Connecticut · Commonwealth v. Monosson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1975-04-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently December 2014

17 state decisions

7019751980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

CATES, Presiding Judge.

¶1Affirmed.

All the judges concur.

¶2ON REHEARING

CATES, Presiding Judge.

¶3Buying, etc., stolen goods: sentence, three years in the penitentiary.

¶4Originally we affirmed the judgment below. However, in her application for rehearing appellant points out- — without contradiction by the State- — that the search warrants used to retrieve the stolen copper from her home were not signed by the municipal judge.

¶5There is no common law authorizing search warrants. Statutes authorizing searches are strictly construed against the prosecution in favor of the liberty of the citizen. Commonwealth v. Monosson, 351 Mass. 327, 221 N.E.2d 220; 79 C.J.S. Searches and Seizures § 7.

¶6Our Legislature has in Code 1940, T. 15, § 100 defined a search warrant thus:

“A search warrant is an order in writing in the name of the state, signed by a magistrate, directed to the sheriff, or to any constable of the county, commanding him to search for personal property, and bring it before the magistrate.”

¶7(Italics added).

¶8Often rules relating to arrest warrants parallel those applying to searches and vice versa. Significantly unsigned arrest warrants have been held void. Oates v. Bullock, 136 Ala. 537, 33 So. 835 (warrant utterly void).

¶9Specifically as to unsigned search warrants we have noted Wilson v. Commonwealth, 211 Ky. 709, 277 S.W. 1019; Byrd v. Commonwealth (Ky.), 261 S.W.2d 437; Turner v. Commonwealth (Ky.), 328 S.W.2d 413, and State v. Cochrane, 84 S.D. 527, 173 N.W.2d 495.

¶10Since the search warrant was not signed by the municipal judge, it is our opinion that it was void on its face and any search and seizure made thereunder was un*404authorized and illegal. A judgment is void on its face when it only requires an inspection of the judgment roll to demonstrate its invalidity. Colquett v. Williams, 269 Ala. 383, 113 So.2d 347; Anderson v. Lynch, 94 Okl. 137, 221 P. 415; Spaulding & Co. v. Chapin, 37 Cal.App. 573, 174 P. 334. The same is true of a search warrant when it shows on its face that it lacks the signature of any magistrate, such being the only authorized officer to put life in the paper.

¶11 The constitutional right of an individual to be secure in person and effects from an unreasonable search and seizure may be waived provided it is done voluntarily. A distinction is recognized between submission to apparent authority of an officer acting under a warrant,1 and unqualified consent. 68 Am.Jur.2d, Searches and Seizures, § 47. The intent to waive the constitutional immunity must be positively established and the burden of proof is upon the party alleging the waiver.

¶12In Fahy v. Connecticut, 375 U.S. 85, 84 S.Ct. 229, 11 L.Ed.2d 171, we find:

We find that the erroneous admission of this unconstitutionally obtained evidence at this petitioner’s trial was prejudicial; therefore, the error was not harmless, and the conviction must be reversed. We are not concerned here with whether there was sufficient evidence on which the petitioner could have been convicted without the evidence complained of. The question is whether there is a reasonable possibility that the evidence complained of might have contributed to the conviction.’’

¶13Accordingly, the judgment below is reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial.

¶14Application granted.

¶15Reversed and remanded.

All the Judges concur.

¶16. We quote from Bumper v. North Carolina, 391 U.S. 543, 88 S.Ct. 1788, 20 L.Ed.2d 797:

“The issue thus presented is whether a search can be justified as lawful on the basis of consent when that ‘consent’ has been given only after the official conducting the search has asserted that he possesses a warrant. We hold that there can be no consent under such circumstances.
“When a prosecutor seeks to rely upon consent to justify the lawfulness of a search, he has the burden of proving that the consent was, in fact, freely and voluntarily given. This burden cannot be discharged by showing no more than acquiescence to a claim of lawful authority. A search eon-ducted in reliance upon a warrant cannot later be justified on the basis of consent if it turns out that the warrant was invalid. The result can be no different when it turns out that- the State does not even attempt to rely upon the validity of the warrant, or fails to show that there was, in fact, any warrant at all.
“When a law enforcement officer claims authority to search a home under a warrant, he announces in effect that the occupant has no right to resist the search. The situation is instinct with coercion — albeit colorably lawful coercion. Where there is coercion there cannot be consent.”
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