(DOWNLOAD) "State Tennessee v. Rodney Thomas Raspberry" by at Jackson Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: State Tennessee v. Rodney Thomas Raspberry
- Author : at Jackson Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
- Release Date : January 08, 1982
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 73 KB
Description
O'BRIEN, Judge. OPINION Defendant was indicted by the Madison County Grand Jury for the offense of second degree burglary. Motions to suppress State's evidence of the offense because defendant was unlawfully arrested and searched without an arrest or search warrant, and to suppress a confession made by him for the same reasons, were overruled in the trial court. A subsequent motion to dismiss the indictment on the premise that defendant had previously entered a guilty plea to concealing stolen property in an adjoining county involving the same property which he was charged with obtaining in the course of the burglary was also overruled. Defendant then entered a plea of guilty to second degree burglary. He received a three (3) year sentence which was to run concurrently with the two (2) year sentence adjudicated for concealing the stolen articles in Henderson County. He reserved the right to appeal his conviction upon the certified question of the legality of the search and the legality of his arrest, and denial of the motion to suppress his confession. The motions to suppress evidence allegedly obtained in an illegal search and to deny admission of defendant's confession were consolidated in the trial court. We comment at the outset that the evidence at the suppression hearing was exceedingly scant because of constant objection on the part of defense counsel to the admission of hearsay evidence, the extreme caution exercised by the District Attorney General in submitting hearsay evidence, and the reluctance of the trial Judge to allow its admission. As a result there was little to go on for the trial Judge to make a decision in the matter, and a bare record submitted for this Court's examination on appellate review. Neither the statement of the trial Judge in the transcript, nor his order overruling the motion to suppress offers much greater assistance. We specifically call attention to Rule 4(b) of the Rules of Criminal Procedure which holds that the finding of probable cause shall be based upon evidence, which may be hearsay in whole or in part provided there is a substantial basis for believing the source of the hearsay to be credible and for believing that there is a factual basis for the information furnished. While this rule applies itself particularly to warrants for arrest, the same principle must be considered applicable to establish probable cause where an arrest has been made without a warrant. This must be true because the information to be considered is that available to the officer at the time of the arrest or search. See LaFave, Search and Seizure, Sec. 3.2(d). While there is a limitation on the nature of the hearsay evidence which may be admissible to establish probable cause, frequently the arresting officer has information from various sources of hearsay, such as police informants, victims and witnesses, or other law enforcement personnel, and it is largely a matter of discretion on the part of a trial Judge to admit that information he considers necessary in determining whether or not probable cause for an arrest or a search exists. When that decision has been made it becomes essential for him to set out in his order granting or denying a suppression motion his reasons for doing so in order that the correctness of his decision may be assessed on appellate review. On the subject of the admissibility of hearsay at probable cause hearings the United States Supreme Court had this to say in United States v. Matlock, 415 U.S. 164, 94 S.Ct. 988, 39 L.Ed.2d 242 (1974):
 "State Tennessee v. Rodney Thomas Raspberry" by at Jackson Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}