Ker v. California

Mr. Justice Clark delivered the opinion of the Court with reference to the standard by which state searches and seizures must be evaluated (Part I), together with an opinion applying that standard, in which Mr. Justice Black, Mr. Justice Stewart and Mr. Justice White join (Parts II-V), and announced the judgment of the Court.

This case raises séarch and seizure questions under the rule of Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643 (1961). Petitioners, husband and wife, were convicted of possession of marijuana-in violation of § 11530 of the California Health and Safety Code. The California District Court of Appeal affirmed, 195 Cal. App. 2d 246, 15 Cal. Rptr. 767, despite the contention of petitioners that their arrests in their [*25] apartment without warrants lacked probable cause[1] and the evidence seized .incident thereto and introduced at their trial was' therefore inadmissible.. The California Supreme Court denied without opinion a petition for hearing. This being the first case arriving here since our opinion in Mapp which would afford suitable opportunity for further explication of that holding in the light of intervening experience, we granted certiorari. 368 U. S. 974. We affirm the judgment before us.

The state courts’ conviction and affirmance are based on these events, which culminated in the petitioners’ arrests. Sergeant Cook of the Los Angeles County Sber-? iff’s Office, in negotiating the purchase of marijuana from one Terrhagen, accompanied him to a bowling alley about 7 p.' m. on July 26, 1960, where they were to meet Terrhagen’s “connection.” Terrhagen went inside and returned shortly, pointing to a 1946 DeSoto as his “connection’s” automobile and explaining that they were to meet him “up by the oil fields” near Fairfax and Slauson Avenues, in Los Angeles. As they neared that location, Terrhagen again pointed out the DeSoto traveling ahead of them, stating that the “connection” kept his supply of narcotics “somewhere up in the hills.” They parked near some vacant fields in the vicinity of the intersection of Fairfax and Slauson, and, shortly thereafter, the DeSoto reappeared and pulled up beside them. The deputy then recognized the driver as one Roland Murphy,, whose “mug” photograph he had seen and whom he knew from other narcotics officers to be-a large-scale seller of marijuana currently ,’out on bail in connection with narcotics charges.