Opinion

Commonwealth v. One 1955 Buick Sedan

  • 198 Pa. Super. 133
  • 182 A.2d 280
  • 1962 Pa. Super. LEXIS 663
Court
Superior Court of Pennsylvania
Filed
Jun 13, 1962
Status
Published
Author
Watkins
On the bench
Rhodes, Ervin, Wright, Woodside, Watkins, Montgomery, Flood
Cited by
9 cases
Authority
More cited than 10.2%

The opinion

Dissenting Opinion by

Watkins, J.:

I would reverse the Decree of Forfeiture of the Court below for the reason that the evidence obtained was without warrant in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and so constituted illegal search and seizure, and the defendant’s motion to suppress should have been sustained. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643 , 81 S. Ct. 1684 , 6 L. Ed. 2d 1081 (June 1961).

The officers were observing the building and the automobile for four days and during the entire time had probable cause to obtain the necessary warrant. This could have been at any time during the four days without interrupting surveillance and to say, as the majority opinion does, that “it would have been unreasonable to expect the officers to go some distance away to obtain a warrant for search and seizure when the moving automobile, within a few minutes, probably would have been out of reach of the officers,” is a tortured interpretation of the facts.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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