OK: Arrest of murder suspect on traffic warrant not pretextual

Arrest of capital murder suspect on an outstanding traffic warrant was valid, and pretext was not a valid argument. Johnson v. State, 2012 OK CR 5, 272 P.3d 720 (2012):

[*P12] Appellant first asserts that his arrest on outstanding warrants was illegal because it was solely a pretext to hold him for questioning about the homicides. However, if police have a valid right to arrest an individual for one crime, it does not matter if their subjective intent is in reality to collect information concerning another crime. Bland v. State, 2000 OK CR 11, ¶ 48, 4 P.3d 702, 718. “Whether a Fourth Amendment violation has occurred, ‘turns on an objective assessment of the officer’s actions in light of the facts and circumstances confronting him at the time, … and not on the officer’s actual state of mind at the time the challenged action was taken.'” Maryland v. Macon, 472 U.S. 463, 470-71, 105 S.Ct. 2778, 2783, 86 L.Ed.2d 370 (1985) quoting Scott v. United States, 436 U.S. 128, 136-39 n. 13, 98 S.Ct. 1717, 1722, 1724 n. 13, 56 L.Ed.2d 168 (1978). See also Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 812-13, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 1774, 135 L.Ed.2d 89, 98 (1996) (Supreme Court reiterated its position that it was unwilling to entertain Fourth Amendment challenges based upon the actual motivations of individual officers); Phillips v. State, 1999 OK CR 38, ¶ 41, 989 P.2d 1017, 1031. If the police action could have been taken against an individual “even absent the ‘underlying intent or motivation,’ there is no conduct which ought to have been deterred and thus no reason to bring the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule into play for purposes of deterrence.” See 1 Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure § 1.4(e) (4th ed. 2004). In other words, if the alleged pretextual arrest could have taken place absent police suspicion of Appellant’s involvement in another crime, then the arrest is lawful. In the present case, Appellant was arrested on outstanding warrants which were issued before the murders occurred. The officers legally executed the valid arrest warrants and their subjective intent does not make this otherwise lawful conduct illegal or unconstitutional.

I wouldn’t have raised this argument, but it’s a capital case and defense counsel has to pursue issues that seem weak anyway. At least in my state we can raise it in trial court and not bother to argue it on appeal, but, by rule and statute, the issue is deemed decided on the merits for post-conviction purposes without cluttering the appeal with what seems to be a frivolous issue.