Murray v. United States, 487 U.S. 533 (1988)
Murray v. United States, 487 U.S. 533 (1988)
Murray v. United States, 487 U.S. 533 (1988)
533
108 S.Ct. 2529
101 L.Ed.2d 472
Syllabus
While surveilling petitioner Murray and others suspected of illegal drug
activities, federal agents observed both petitioners driving vehicles into,
and later out of, a warehouse, and, upon petitioners' exit, saw that the
warehouse contained a tractor-trailer rig bearing a long container.
Petitioners later turned over their vehicles to other drivers, who were in
turn followed and ultimately arrested, and the vehicles were lawfully
seized and found to contain marijuana. After receiving this information,
several agents forced their way into the warehouse and observed in plain
view numerous burlap-wrapped bales. The agents left without disturbing
the bales and did not return until they had obtained a warrant to search the
warehouse. In applying for the warrant, they did not mention the prior
entry or include any recitations of their observations made during that
entry. Upon issuance of the warrant, they reentered the warehouse and
seized 270 bales of marijuana and other evidence of crime. The District
Court denied petitioners' pretrial motion to suppress the evidence,
rejecting their arguments that the warrant was invalid because the agents
did not inform the Magistrate about their prior warrantless entry, and that
the warrant was tainted by that entry. Petitioners were subsequently
convicted of conspiracy to possess and distribute illegal drugs. The Court
of Appeals affirmed, assuming for purposes of its decision on the
suppression question that the first entry into the warehouse was unlawful.
Held: The Fourth Amendment does not require the suppression of
evidence initially discovered during police officers' illegal entry of private
In Segura v. United States, 468 U.S. 796, 104 S.Ct. 3388, 82 L.Ed.2d 599
(1984), we held that police officers' illegal entry upon private premises did not
require suppression of evidence subsequently discovered at those premises
when executing a search warrant obtained on the basis of information wholly
unconnected with the initial entry. In these consolidated cases we are faced
with the question whether, again assuming evidence obtained pursuant to an
independently obtained search warrant, the portion of such evidence that had
been observed in plain view at the time of a prior illegal entry must be
suppressed.
After receiving this information, several of the agents converged on the South
Boston warehouse and forced entry. They found the warehouse unoccupied, but
observed in plain view numerous burlap-wrapped bales that were later found to
contain marijuana. They left without disturbing the bales, kept the warehouse
under surveillance, and did not reenter it until they had a search warrant. In
applying for the warrant, the agents did not mention the prior entry, and did not
rely on any observations made during that entry. When the warrant was issued
at 10:40 p.m., approximately eight hours after the initial entrythe agents
immediately reentered the warehouse and seized 270 bales of marijuana and
notebooks listing customers for whom the bales were destined.
II
5
"[T]he interest of society in deterring unlawful police conduct and the public
interest in having juries receive all probative evidence of a crime are properly
balanced by putting the police in the same, not a worse, position that they
would have been in if no police error or misconduct had occurred. . . . When the
challenged evidence has an independent source, exclusion of such evidence
would put the police in a worse position than they would have been in absent
any error or violation." Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431, 443, 104 S.Ct. 2501,
2509, 81 L.Ed.2d 377 (1984)
The dispute here is over the scope of this doctrine. Petitioners contend that it
applies only to evidence obtained for the first time during an independent
lawful search. The Government argues that it applies also to evidence initially
discovered during, or as a consequence of, an unlawful search, but later
obtained independently from activities untainted by the initial illegality. We
think the Government's view has better support in both precedent and policy.
Our cases have used the concept of "independent source" in a more general and
a more specific sense. The more general sense identifies all evidence acquired
in a fashion untainted by the illegal evidence-gathering activity. Thus, where an
unlawful entry has given investigators knowledge of facts x and y, but fact z has
been learned by other means, fact z can be said to be admissible because
derived from an "independent source." This is how we used the term in Segura
v. United States, 468 U.S. 796, 104 S.Ct. 3380, 82 L.Ed.2d 599 (1984). In that
case, agents unlawfully entered the defendant's apartment and remained there
until a search warrant was obtained. The admissibility of what they discovered
while waiting in the apartment was not before us, id., at 802-803, n. 4, 104
S.Ct., at 384, n. 4, but we held that the evidence found for the first time during
the execution of the valid and untainted search warrant was admissible because
it was discovered pursuant to an "independent source," id., at 813-814, 104
S.Ct., at 3389-90. See also United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 240-242, 87
S.Ct. 1926, 1939-40, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967); Costello v. United States, 365
U.S. 265, 280, 81 S.Ct. 534, 542, 5 L.Ed.2d 551 (1961); Nardone v. United
States, supra, at 341, 60 S.Ct., at 267.
10
The original use of the term, however, and its more important use for purposes
of these cases, was more specific. It was originally applied in the exclusionary
rule context, by Justice Holmes, with reference to that particular category of
evidence acquired by an untainted search which is identical to the evidence
unlawfully acquiredthat is, in the example just given, to knowledge of facts x
and y derived from an independent source:
11
12
As the First Circuit has observed, "[i]n the classic independent source situation,
information which is received through an illegal source is considered to be
cleanly obtained when it arrives through an independent source." United States
v. Silvestri, 787 F.2d 736, 739 (1986). We recently assumed this application of
the independent source doctrine (in the Sixth Amendment context) in Nix v.
Williams, supra. There incriminating statements obtained in violation of the
defendant's right to counsel had led the police to the victim's body. The body
had not in fact been found through an independent source as well, and so the
independent source doctrine was not itself applicable. We held, however, that
evidence concerning the body was nonetheless admissible because a search had
been under way which would have discovered the body, had it not been called
off because of the discovery produced by the unlawfully obtained statements.
Id., 467 U.S., at 448-450, 104 S.Ct., at 2511-12. This "inevitable discovery"
doctrine obviously assumes the validity of the independent source doctrine as
applied to evidence initially acquired unlawfully. It would make no sense to
admit the evidence because the independent search, had it not been aborted,
would have found the body, but to exclude the evidence if the search had
continued and had in fact found the body. The inevitable discovery doctrine,
with its distinct requirements, is in reality an extrapolation from the
independent source doctrine: Since the tainted evidence would be admissible if
in fact discovered through an independent source, it should be admissible if it
inevitably would have been discovered.
13
14
To apply what we have said to the present cases: Knowledge that the marijuana
was in the warehouse was assuredly acquired at the time of the unlawful entry.
But it was also acquired at the time of entry pursuant to the warrant, and if that
later acquisition was not the result of the earlier entry there is no reason why
the independent source doctrine should not apply. Invoking the exclusionary
rule would put the police (and society) not in the same position they would
have occupied if no violation occurred, but in a worse one. See Nix v. Williams,
467 U.S., at 443, 104 S.Ct., at 2508.
16
We think this is also true with respect to the tangible evidence, the bales of
marijuana. It would make no more sense to exclude that than it would to
exclude tangible evidence found upon the corpse in Nix, if the search in that
case had not been abandoned and had in fact come upon the body. The First
Circuit has discerned a difference between tangible and intangible evidence that
has been tainted, in that objects "once seized cannot be cleanly reseized without
returning the objects to private control." United States v. Silvestri, 787 F.2d, at
739. It seems to us, however, that reseizure of tangible evidence already seized
is no more impossible than rediscovery of intangible evidence already
discovered. The independent source doctrine does not rest upon such
metaphysical analysis, but upon the policy that, while the government should
not profit from its illegal activity, neither should it be placed in a worse position
than it would otherwise have occupied. So long as a later, lawful seizure is
genuinely independent of an earlier, tainted one (which may well be difficult to
establish where the seized goods are kept in the police's possession) there is no
reason why the independent source doctrine should not apply.
17
The ultimate question, therefore, is whether the search pursuant to warrant was
in fact a genuinely independent source of the information and tangible evidence
at issue here. This would not have been the case if the agents' decision to seek
the warrant was prompted by what they had seen during the initial entry,3 or if
information obtained during that entry was presented to the Magistrate and
affected his decision to issue the warrant. On this point the Court of Appeals
said the following:
18
"[W]e can be absolutely certain that the warrantless entry in no way contributed
in the slightest either to the issuance of a warrant or to the discovery of the
evidence during the lawful search that occurred pursuant to the warrant.
19
*****
20
21
Although these statements can be read to provide emphatic support for the
Government's position, it is the function of the District Court rather than the
Court of Appeals to determine the facts, and we do not think the Court of
Appeals' conclusions are supported by adequate findings. The District Court
found that the agents did not reveal their warrantless entry to the Magistrate,
App. to Pet. for Cert. 43a, and that they did not include in their application for a
warrant any recitation of their observations in the warehouse, id., at 44a-45a. It
did not, however, explicitly find that the agents would have sought a warrant if
they had not earlier entered the warehouse. The Government concedes this in
its brief. Brief for United States 17, n. 5. To be sure, the District Court did
determine that the purpose of the warrantless entry was in part "to guard against
the destruction of possibly critical evidence," App. to Pet. for Cert. 42a, and one
could perhaps infer from this that the agents who made the entry already
planned to obtain that "critical evidence" through a warrant-authorized search.
That inference is not, however, clear enough to justify the conclusion that the
District Court's findings amounted to a determination of independent source.
22
Accordingly, we vacate the judgment and remand these cases to the Court of
Appeals with instructions that it remand to the District Court for determination
whether the warrant-authorized search of the warehouse was an independent
It is so ordered.
24
25
26
The Court today holds that the "independent source" exception to the
exclusionary rule may justify admitting evidence discovered during an illegal
warrantless search that is later "rediscovered" by the same team of investigators
during a search pursuant to a warrant obtained immediately after the illegal
search. I believe the Court's decision, by failing to provide sufficient guarantees
that the subsequent search was, in fact, independent of the illegal search,
emasculates the Warrant Clause and undermines the deterrence function of the
exclusionary rule. I therefore dissent.
27
This Court has stated frequently that the exclusionary rule is principally
designed to deter violations of the Fourth Amendment. See, e.g., United States
v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 906, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 3411, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984);
Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 217, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 1444, 4 L.Ed.2d
1669 (1960). By excluding evidence discovered in violation of the Fourth
Amendment, the rule "compel[s] respect for the constitutional guaranty in the
only effectively available way, by removing the incentive to disregard it." Id.,
at 217, 80 S.Ct., at 1444. The Court has crafted exceptions to the exclusionary
rule when the purposes of the rule are not furthered by the exclusion. As the
Court today recognizes, the independent source exception to the exclusionary
rule "allows admission of evidence that has been discovered by means wholly
independent of any constitutional violation." Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431,
443, 104 S.Ct. 2501, 2508, 81 L.Ed.2d 377 (1984); see Silverthorne Lumber
Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385, 392, 40 S.Ct. 182, 64 L.Ed. 319 (1920). The
independent source exception, like the inevitable discovery exception, is
primarily based on a practical view that under certain circumstances the
beneficial deterrent effect that exclusion will have on future constitutional
violations is too slight to justify the social cost of excluding probative evidence
from a criminal trial. See Nix v. Williams, supra, 467 U.S., at 444-446, 104
S.Ct., at 2509-10; cf. United States v. Leon, supra, 468 U.S., 906-909, 104
S.Ct., at 3411-12. When the seizure of the evidence at issue is "wholly
independent of" the constitutional violation, then exclusion arguably will have
Given the underlying justification for the independent source exception, any
inquiry into the exception's application must keep sight of the practical effect
admission will have on the incentives facing law enforcement officers to
engage in unlawful conduct. The proper scope of the independent source
exception, and guidelines for its application, cannot be divined in a factual
vacuum; instead, they must be informed by the nature of the constitutional
violation and the deterrent effect of exclusion in particular circumstances. In
holding that the independent source exception may apply to the facts of these
cases, I believe the Court loses sight of the practical moorings of the
independent source exception and creates an affirmative incentive for
unconstitutional searches. This holding can find no justification in the purposes
underlying both the exclusionary rule and the independent source exception.
29
30
It is undisputed that the agents made no effort to obtain a warrant prior to the
initial entry. The agents had not begun to prepare a warrant affidavit, and
according to FBI Agent Cleary, who supervised the FBI's involvement, they
had not even engaged in any discussions of obtaining a warrant. App. 52. The
affidavit in support of the warrant obtained after the initial search was prepared
by DEA Agent Keaney, who had tactical control over the DEA agents, and who
had participated in the initial search of the warehouse. The affidavit did not
mention the warrantless search of the warehouse, nor did it cite information
obtained from that search. In determining that the challenged evidence was
admissible, the Court of Appeals assumed that the initial warrantless entry was
not justified by exigent circumstances and that the search therefore violated the
Warrant Clause of the Fourth Amendment.
31
32
The Court, however, "see[s] the incentives differently." Ante, at 540. Under the
Court's view, today's decision does not provide an incentive for unlawful
searches, because the officer undertaking the search would know that "his
action would add to the normal burden of convincing a magistrate that there is
probable cause the much more onerous burden of convincing a trial court that
no information gained from the illegal entry affected either the law
enforcement officers' decision to seek a warrant or the magistrate's decision to
grant it." Ibid. The Court, however, provides no hint of why this risk would
actually seem significant to the officers. Under the circumstances of these
cases, the officers committing the illegal search have both knowledge and
control of the factors central to the trial court's determination. First, it is a
simple matter, as was done in these cases, to exclude from the warrant
application any information gained from the initial entry so that the magistrate's
determination of probable cause is not influenced by the prior illegal search.
Second, today's decision makes the application of the independent source
exception turn entirely on an evaluation of the officers' intent. It normally will
be difficult for the trial court to verify, or the defendant to rebut, an assertion by
officers that they always intended to obtain a warrant, regardless of the results
of the illegal search.2 The testimony of the officers conducting the illegal
search is the only direct evidence of intent, and the defendant will be relegated
simply to arguing that the officers should not be believed. Under these
circumstances, the litigation risk described by the Court seems hardly a risk at
all; it does not significantly dampen the incentive to conduct the initial illegal
search.3
33
To ensure that the source of the evidence is genuinely independent, the basis
for a finding that a search was untainted by a prior illegal search must focus, as
with the inevitable discovery doctrine, on "demonstrated historical facts capable
of ready verification or impeachment." Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S., at 445, n. 5,
104 S.Ct., at 2509, n. 5. In the instant cases, there are no "demonstrated
historical facts" capable of supporting a finding that the subsequent warrant
search was wholly unaffected by the prior illegal search. The same team of
investigators was involved in both searches. The warrant was obtained
immediately after the illegal search, and no effort was made to obtain a warrant
prior to the discovery of the marijuana during the illegal search. The only
evidence available that the warrant search was wholly independent is the
testimony of the agents who conducted the illegal search. Under these
circumstances, the threat that the subsequent search was tainted by the illegal
search is too great to allow for the application of the independent source
exception.4 The Court's contrary holding lends itself to easy abuse, and offers
an incentive to bypass the constitutional requirement that probable cause be
assessed by a neutral and detached magistrate before the police invade an
individual's privacy.5
35
The decision in Segura v. United States, 468 U.S. 796, 104 S.Ct. 3380, 82
L.Ed.2d 599 (1984), is not to the contrary. In Segura, the Court expressly
distinguished between evidence discovered during an initial warrantless entry
and evidence that was not discovered until a subsequent legal search. The Court
held that under those circumstances, when no information from an illegal
search was used in a subsequent warrant application, the warrant provided an
independent source for the evidence first uncovered in the second, lawful
search.
36
37
In sum, under circumstances as are presented in these cases, when the very law
enforcement officers who participate in an illegal search immediately thereafter
obtain a warrant to search the same premises, I believe the evidence discovered
during the initial illegal entry must be suppressed. Any other result emasculates
the Warrant Clause and provides an intolerable incentive for warrantless
searches. I respectfully dissent.
38
39
embodiment in the fundamental law of the land." Weeks v. United States, 232
U.S. 383, 393-394, 34 S.Ct. 341, 344, 58 L.Ed. 652 (1914).
The original petitions raised both the present Fourth Amendment claim and a
Speedy Trial Act claim. We granted the petitions, vacated the judgment below,
and remanded for reconsideration of the Speedy Trial Act issue in light of
Henderson v. United States, 476 U.S. 321, 106 S.Ct. 1871, 90 L.Ed.2d 299
(1986). Carter v. United States and Murray v. United States, 476 U.S. 1138,
106 S.Ct. 2241, 90 L.Ed.2d 688 (1986). On remand, the Court of Appeals again
rejected the Speedy Trial Act claim and did not reexamine its prior ruling on
the Fourth Amendment question. 803 F.2d 20 (1986). Petitioners again sought
writs of certiorari, which we granted limited to the Fourth Amendment
question.
Justice MARSHALL argues, in effect, that where the police cannot point to
some historically verifiable fact demonstrating that the subsequent search
pursuant to a warrant was wholly unaffected by the prior illegal searche.g.,
that they had already sought the warrant before entering the premiseswe
should adopt a per se rule of inadmissibility. See post, at 549. We do not
believe that such a prophylatic exception to the independent source rule is
necessary. To say that a district court must be satisfied that a warrant would
have been sought without the illegal entry is not to give dispositive effect to
police officers' assurances on the point. Where the facts render those assurances
implausible, the independent source doctrine will not apply.
We might note that there is no basis for pointing to the present cases as an
example of a "search first, warrant later" mentality. The District Court found
that the agents entered the warehouse "in an effort to apprehend any
participants who might have remained inside and to guard against the
destruction of possibly critical evidence." United States v. Carter, No. 83-102-S
(Mass., Dec. 23, 1983), App. to Pet. for Cert. 42a. While they may have
misjudged the existence of sufficient exigent circumstances to justify the
warrantless entry (the Court of Appeals did not reach that issue and neither do
we), there is nothing to suggest that they went in merely to see if there was
anything worth getting a warrant for.
Justice MARSHALL argues that "the relevant question [is] whether, even if the
initial entry uncovered no evidence, the officers would return immediately with
a warrant to conduct a second search." Post, at 548, n. 2; see post, at 549550,
n. 4. We do not see how this is "relevant" at all. To determine whether the
warrant was independent of the illegal entry, one must ask whether it would
have been sought even if what actually happened had not occurrednot
whether it would have been sought if something else had happened. That is to
say, what counts is whether the actual illegal search had any effect in producing
the warrant, not whether some hypothetical illegal search would have aborted
the warrant. Only that much is needed to assure that what comes before the
court is not the product of illegality; to go further than that would be to expand
our existing exclusionary rule.
1
The clearest case for the application of the independent source exception is
when a wholly separate line of investigation, shielded from information
gathered in an illegal search, turns up the same evidence through a separate,
lawful search. Under these circumstances, there is little doubt that the lawful
search was not connected to the constitutional violation. The exclusion of such
evidence would not significantly add to the deterrence facing the law
enforcement officers conducting the illegal search, because they would have
little reason to anticipate the separate investigation leading to the same
evidence.
Such an intent-based rule is of dubious value for other reasons as well. First,
the intent of the officers prior to the illegal entry often will be of little
significance to the relevant question: whether, even if the initial entry
uncovered no evidence, the officers would return immediately with a warrant to
conduct a second search. Officers who have probable cause to believe
contraband is present genuinely might intend later to obtain a warrant, but after
the illegal search uncovers no such contraband, those same officers might
decide their time is better spent than to return with a warrant. In addition, such
an intent rule will be difficult to apply. The Court fails to describe how a trial
court will properly evaluate whether the law enforcement officers fully
intended to obtain a warrant regardless of what they discovered during the
illegal search. The obvious question is whose intent is relevant? Intentions
clearly may differ both among supervisory officers and among officers who
initiate the illegal search.
The litigation risk facing these law enforcement officers may be contrasted
with the risk faced by the officer in Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431, 104 S.Ct.
2501, 81 L.Ed.2d 377 (1984). Nix involved an application of the inevitable
discovery exception to the exclusionary rule. In that case, the Court stressed
that an officer "who is faced with the opportunity to obtain evidence illegally
will rarely, if ever, be in a position to calculate whether the evidence sought
would inevitably be discovered." Id., at 445, 104 S.Ct., at 2510. Unlike the
officer in Nix, who had no way of knowing about the progress of a wholly
separate line of investigation that already had begun at the time of his
unconstitutional conduct, the officers in the instant cases, at least under the
Court's analysis, have complete knowledge and control over the factors relevant
to the determination of "independence."
4
To conclude that the initial search had no effect on the decision to obtain a
warrant, and thus that the warrant search was an "independent source" of the
challenged evidence, one would have to assume that even if the officers entered
the premises and discovered no contraband, they nonetheless would have gone
to the Magistrate, sworn that they had probable cause to believe that contraband
was in the building, and then returned to conduct another search. Although such
a scenario is possible, I believe it is more plausible to believe that the officers
would not have chosen to return immediately to the premises with a warrant to
search for evidence had they not discovered evidence during the initial search.
Given that the law enforcement officers in these cases made no movement to
obtain a warrant prior to the illegal search, these cases do not present the more
difficult issue whether, in light of the strong interest in deterring illegal
warrantless searches, the evidence discovered during an illegal search ever may
be admitted under the independent source exception when the second legal
search is conducted by the same investigative team pursuing the same line of
investigation.