{"id":2059,"date":"2008-06-22T07:40:07","date_gmt":"2008-05-08T07:47:44","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-08T07:47:44","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=2059","title":{"rendered":"MT: Appellate court can apply inevitable discovery sua sponte"},"content":{"rendered":"

An appeals court can apply the inevitable discovery doctrine on its own motion. Inevitable discovery is similar to harmless error. State v. Dickinson<\/a>, 2008 MT 159, 343 Mont. 301, 184 P.3d 305 (2008):<\/p>\n

[*P20] As indicated above, the parties did not argue to the District Court or to this Court the “inevitable discovery” doctrine. And while we acknowledge that we do not traditionally address legal theories not raised by the parties, there are limited analyses in which this Court frequently engages, even if the parties have not urged us to do so. A classic example is the “harmless error” analysis, which is similar to the inevitable discovery exception. In the typical “harmless error” situation, a defendant argues that a claimed error requires reversal, and in response the State asserts that no error occurred. Even if the State fails to argue the fallback position that if error occurred, it was harmless, we will still engage in the harmless error analysis in the event we conclude that an error was made, for the simple reason that we have everything in the record we need to make that determination, and a refusal to make the analysis would unnecessarily multiply the proceedings (e.g., remand for determination of whether the error was harmless, followed by a second appeal). The situation before us is similar in that Dickinson argues the court erred in failing to suppress the evidence and the State maintains it did not.<\/p>\n

[*P21] While we have no cases which categorically state that we will apply the “inevitable discovery” doctrine sua sponte, it appears we did so in Pearson<\/em>. Pearson argued that a police officer performed an illegal search resulting in the discovery of marijuana. This gave the officer probable cause to obtain a warrant to search Pearson’s car, at which time cocaine was discovered. Pearson sought to have evidence of the cocaine suppressed on the ground that the original search was unlawful and the subsequently-discovered evidence was tainted. However, we held that other “plain view” evidence of illegal drug activity provided probable cause for a warrant under which the cocaine would have been “inevitably discovered.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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