Goodwin v. State
Goodwin v. State
Opinion of the Court
Appellants Goodwin and Manley on interlocutory appeal challenge the trial court’s denial of their motion to suppress evidence which was overheard through an electronic "body bug” worn by an informant, and evidence seized from a rented police car which was lent to the appellant at appellant’s suggestion for the sole purpose of picking up a load of marijuana to sell to the informant. The evidence shows that Sgt. Kleckly of the Atlanta Police Department rented an automobile, a Monte Carlo, at the Atlanta Airport and turned it over to the Detective Archangeles. Archangeles and an informant drove the Monte Carlo to Clayton County to a restaurant parking lot. There they met with detectives from Cobb, DeKalb, and Clayton Counties and "decided how the deal would basically go.” A meeting had been arranged between the informant and appellant Goodwin. At this time, an electronic body bug was placed on the informant by one of the other detectives at the restaurant. Over objection, Archangeles was permitted to testify at
Appellant contends that the warrantless search of the automobile was improper because the appellant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the automobile which the informant lent to him, and, moreover, was without probable cause because no proper foundation was laid for the admissibility of appellant’s electronically-overheard statements. The state contends that the police had an unquestionable right to search their own property, and that, in any event, probable cause existed because of Goodwin’s overheard admission that he was going to pick up the dope and' bring it back, coupled with all the other circumstances observed by
1. (a) Appellants contend that the testimony as to the body bug communication is governed by Steve M. Solomon Jr., Inc. v. Edgar, 92 Ga. App. 207, 211 (3) (88 SE2d 167), which held that a proper, specifically stated foundation must be laid for use of tapes of recorded conversation; appellants argue that it would be absurd to hold that evidence of an unrecorded communication is governed by any lesser standard. The matter here under consideration is governed by Code § 26-3006, which limits the proscriptions of Code § 26-3001, prohibiting the clandestine surveillance or overhearing of private conversations of another. Code § 26-3006 authorizes the "interception, recording and divulging of a message sent by telephone ... or any other means of communication when . . . the message shall be initiated or instigated by a person and the message [constitutes] the commission of a crime or is directly in furtherance of a crime, provided at least one party thereto shall consent.” (Emphasis supplied.) State v. Birge, 240 Ga. 501 (241 SE2d 213); Cross v. State, 128 Ga. App. 837 (198 SE2d 338). It is settled that Code § 26-3006 allows law enforcement officers to intercept, record, and divulge the conversation, where at least one party thereto consents, and where the conversation is a crime or is in furtherance of a crime. Mitchell v. State, 239 Ga. 3, 5 (235 SE2d 509). Furthermore, a state agent may divulge contents of conversations with an accused by carrying radio equipment which simultaneously transmits conversations to other agents monitoring the transmission frequency. Cross, supra. The police officers who are simultaneously listening to the conversation through electronic amplification of the conversation may testify as to what they have heard, since the import of the electronically-aided eavesdropping is the same as if the officers were eavesdropping outside an open window or sitting in the same room. On Lee v. United States, 343 U. S. 747, 754 (72 SC 967, 96 LE 1270); see also United States v. White, 401 U. S. 745, 751-753 (91 SC 1122, 28 LE2d 453); Goldman v. United States, 316 U. S. 129, 134 (62 SC 993, 86 LE 1322). As was said in Irvine v. California, 347 U. S. 128, 131 (74 SC 381, 98 LE 561), "All that was heard. was what an eavesdropper . . . might have heard. We do not suppose it is illegal to testify to what another person is heard to say merely because he is saying it into a telephone.” When the police agents testify to what they have heard in this manner, such evidence is direct, primary evidence of a conversation overheard through a device which by its nature does nothing more than amplify and transmit, much as the telephone does (see Irvine v. California,
(b) Appellant argues further that it was necessary to affirmatively establish the informant’s consent to the electronic surveillance pursuant to Code § 26-3006, and that the requirements of Code § 26-3006 are not satisfied by the police agent’s hearsay testimony that the informant said he had no aversion to wearing the body bug. Some guidance may be found in the wording of Code § 26-3006, which permits surveillance of a message sent by any means "in those instances wherein the message shall be initiated or instigated by person” and where the message shall constitute a crime or is directly in furtherance of a crime, provided at least one party consents to the interception, recording and divulging. We are
2. Appellants contend they had an expectation of privacy in the contents of the trunk of the automobile which they borrowed
Judgment affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
I dissent to Division 1 of the majority opinion. The motion to suppress should have been granted.
Appellants, Goodwin, et al. (hereinafter referred to as Goodwin) appeal the denial of their motion to suppress contraband seized by law enforcement officers. Goodwin enumerates as error the trial court’s admission of testimony relating to an electronically intercepted communication involving Goodwin and a decoy without a proper foundation having been laid. In support of this contention, Goodwin contends that the state: (a), failed to prove the decoy’s consent to wearing a transmitter as required by Code Ann. § 26-3006; and, (b) denied him his Sixth Amendment right of
Goodwin met with and sold some marijuana to an individual who turned out to be a decoy.
Goodwin’s attorneys tried to talk to the officers involved in the case and the officers refused. The attorneys for Goodwin made an effort to find out the name of the decoy but to no avail. Neither at the suppression hearing nor at the trial of the case did the state have the decoy present as a witness. The state made no effort to explain why the decoy was not present as a witness nor why they would not reveal his name to Goodwin.
Code § 26-3001 provides: "It shall be unlawful for: a) any person in a clandestine manner to intentionally overhear, transmit, or record or attempt to overhear, transmit or record the private conversation of another which shall originate in any private place ...” Code § 26-3006 provides a statutory exception to § 26-3001, "in those instances wherein the message shall be initiated or instigated by a person and the message shall constitute the commission of a crime or is directly in the furtherance of a crime, provided at least one party thereto shall consent” (Emphasis
Goodwin’s entire defense is based upon whether or not the decoy consented to the use of a bug. Goodwin contends that there is insufficient proof of consent. What amounts to proof of consent under this Code section has never been defined by our courts. Black’s Law Dictionary defines "consent” as follows: "A concurrence of wills. Voluntarily yielding the will to the proposition of another; acquiescence ... It is an act unclouded by fraud, duress, or sometimes even mistake . . . There is a difference between consenting and submitting. Every consent involves submission; but a mere submission does not necessarily involve consent... As used in the law of rape 'consent’ means consent of the will, and submission under the influence of fear or terror cannot amount to real consent.. . [T]here must be a choice between resistence and assent ...” (Emphasis supplied.)
Although the state’s witnesses testified that the decoy "knew what was happening,” "had no aversion” to wearing the bug, and "cooperated” with the police, the record contains no affirmative evidence of actual consent on the part of the decoy. Without such evidence, the testimony relating to the bugged conversations was inadmissible.
The very fact that the state would not provide Goodwin with the decoy’s identity indicates that the state had something to hide. The state did not claim that divulging the decoy’s identity would jeopardize any police undercover investigations. The state’s conduct in this case has resulted in a denial of appellant’s right to confront the witnesses against him. See Crosby v. State, 90 Ga. App. 63, 65 (82 SE2d 38) (1954).
Inasmuch as this is a case of first impression in Georgia, the law of other jurisdictions may provide some guidance. The Florida Constitution of 1968 in Art. 1, Sec. 12 provides, inter alia, that "the right of the people . . . against the unreasonable interception of private communications by any means, shall not be violated.” The Florida statute relating to the "consent exception” is similar to Code § 26-3006: the communication may be intercepted provided one of the parties consents. The Supreme Court of Florida, in Tollett v. State, Fla. 272 S2d 490 (1973), held that it was unreasonable to allow recordings to be played before the jury where the consenting one to the recording was not in court and available for cross examination. See also Koran v. State, 213 S2d 735 (1968), (Fla.
The state’s failure to reveal the decoy’s identity effectively destroyed Goodwin’s ability to establish that the decoy had not consented to wearing the bugging device. Since the admissibility of the evidence obtained by the state through the bugging device (which formed the basis of the state’s case) is conditioned upon the consent of the decoy, the state’s refusal to reveal the decoy’s identity denied Goodwin access to testimony that could be essential to his defense. See Roviaro v. United States, 353 U. S. 53 (77 SC 623, 1 LE2d 639) (1957); Crosby v. State, supra; ABA Project on Minimum Standards for Criminal Justice, Standards Relating to Electronic Surveillance (Approved Draft, 1971); 2 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 188 (1974).
Perhaps in our zeal to convict the guilty we overlook the fact that we are also making the law that will be applied to the innocent. In this case, the state could have easily complied with Goodwin’s request for the decoy’s identity. Was this too much for the state to do under the facts of this case? Can the court place its stamp of approval on the state’s refusal to comply with Goodwin’s request? I believe not.
I am authorized to state that Judge Shulman and Judge Carley join in this dissent.
Under Georgia law, the individual was a decoy because he was the purchaser for the police in a sale of contraband. Wilson v. Hopper, 234 Ga. 859 (218 SE2d 573) (1975).
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