Laurenzano v. State
Laurenzano v. State
Opinion of the Court
Affirmed on authority of United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980); Login v. State, 394 So.2d 183 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981); Sizemore v. State, 390 So.2d 401 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980).
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting).
The operative facts, in clear and unambiguous language,
I would reverse on the authority of Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 99 S.Ct. 2637, 61 L.Ed.2d 357 (1979) (when officers detained appellant for the purpose of requiring him to identify himself, they performed a seizure subject to Fourth Amendment requirements) and State v. Frost, 374 So.2d
In United States v. Mendenhall, supra, a sharply divided court upheld an airport seizure on grounds which are not supportive of the States’ argument in this case. Two justices viewed the stop of the suspect as not offensive to the Fourth Amendment. Three justices were of the opinion that the seizure issue should not be considered because it had not been raised in the courts below, but that even if the stop constituted a seizure, the drug courier profile described by narcotic agents satisfied the articulable suspicion requirement. The four dissenting justices believed that even if the court assumed seizure, such seizure was not legal because there was not reasonable grounds for suspecting the defendant of criminal activity at the time of the stop. The single clear proposition that can be extracted from Mendenhall (by a vote of 7-2) is that a stop of this type constitutes a seizure for Fourth Amendment purposes and requires reasonable suspicion.
In Reid v. Georgia, 448 U.S. 438, 100 S.Ct. 2752, 65 L.Ed.2d 890 (1980), decided five weeks after Mendenhall, a majority of the court
The agent’s belief that the petitioner and his companion were attempting to conceal the fact that they were traveling together, a belief that was more an “inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or ‘hunch’ ” .. ., than a fair inference in light of his experience, is simply too slender a need to support the seizure in this case.
See also United States v. Coleman, 450 F.Supp. 433, 439 (E.D.Mich. 1978) (Fourth Amendment stop occurs as soon as officers initially approach an individual, identify themselves, and begin to question him) and cases collected in State v. Frost, supra.
More particularly, the seizure of the person in this case is without a founded suspicion, as required in the federal cases discussed. In addition, the silent “consent” to a search of the luggage was given immediately after appellant was stopped. See State v. Frost, supra. Login v. State, supra, is distinguishable because there, narcotic agents had an articulable suspicion of criminal activity (cocaine residue around Login’s nostrils) before they requested identification, proof of destination, and consent to search. I would reject Sizemore v. State, supra, as having been incorrectly decided.
Because I believe the facts support finding a seizure of the persons not founded on a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity and that there was no break in the chain of illegality from the initial stop to the crucial “consent” I find it unnecessary to discuss the secondary issue whether the subsequent dog-sniff of the luggage was based on voluntary consent rather than a mere acquiescence to apparent authority. Taylor v. State, 355 So.2d 180 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978), cert. denied, 361 So.2d 835 (Fla. 1978).
I share the concern of the majority that drug trafficking has had a deleterious effect on the quality of life in South Florida and that Miami International Airport is a primary point of entry for illegal drugs. Nonetheless, I am constrained to dissent. Affirmance of this seizure will tend to broaden police powers beyond that which is
This court singularly, though a line of cases culminating in this one, has chipped away at the Fourth Amendment in a fashion that has implications far beyond airport terminals and drug couriers. That law enforcement officers may momentarily detain any citizen on the street, request identification, proof of destination, and permission to search for no reason whatsoever without offending the Fourth Amendment is not the rule of Mendenhall, nor is it yet the law of the land. I would further reject the argument that it makes' a legal difference whether the acts are done with a smile or a smirk.
. The Attorney General would argue that appellant was not stopped but merely “contacted,” see State v. Frost, infra at 597, or that this was a “cooperative encounter,” see Schlanger v. State, 397 So.2d 1028 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981) at 1029, or a “pre-detention encounter” see Login v. State, supra at 186. I would reject these inventions as semantic corruptions which ignore reality and otherwise have no legal meaning.
. Justice Rehnquist was the sole dissent.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.