State v. Walker
295 Ga. 888
| Ga. | 2014Background
- At 12:12 a.m., Officer David Adriance, patrolling near an elementary school, was looking for a black male in dark clothing suspected in an attempted motorcycle theft and encountered Ernest Walker wearing a hooded sweatshirt and light pants.
- Adriance told Walker to remove his hands from his pockets; Walker became verbally combative and ran through back yards, discarding items as he fled.
- The discarded items included crack cocaine and a pipe; those items were admitted at trial over Walker’s motion to suppress.
- Walker was convicted by a jury of possession with intent to distribute and obstruction; the Court of Appeals reversed the denial of his suppression motion, holding the officer lacked articulable suspicion and that the command to remove hands transformed the encounter into a Terry stop.
- The Georgia Supreme Court granted certiorari, held the Court of Appeals erred, and reversed, concluding Walker was not “seized” by the officer’s command because he did not submit to the show of authority before abandoning the contraband.
Issues
| Issue | Walker's Argument | State's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whether Officer Adriance’s command to remove hands constituted a Fourth Amendment seizure | The command was an assertion of authority that created a reasonable belief he was not free to leave, so it was a second-tier stop requiring articulable suspicion | A command alone is not a seizure absent physical force or the suspect’s submission; no seizure occurred before Walker fled | Court held no seizure occurred at the command stage because Walker did not submit to the officer’s show of authority |
| Whether a seizure requires submission to an officer’s show of authority | Command alone suffices to create a seizure (per Court of Appeals’ view) | Seizure by show of authority requires actual submission; attempted seizures without submission are not Fourth Amendment seizures | Court applied Hodari D. and Brendlin: seizure requires submission; absent submission, there was at most an attempted seizure |
| Whether evidence abandoned while fleeing is fruit of an illegal seizure | If the command was a seizure lacking reasonable suspicion, the discarded evidence is tainted and must be suppressed | If there was no seizure at the command (no submission), abandonment was voluntary and evidence is admissible | Court held abandonment occurred before any constitutional seizure, so evidence was properly admitted |
| Whether precedent of Georgia appellate cases treating similar commands as seizures controls | Walker relied on state appellate decisions holding similar commands escalated encounters to stops | State argued those cases either involved submission or are inconsistent with U.S. Supreme Court precedent and must yield | Court rejected inconsistent Georgia appellate holdings to the extent they conflict with Supreme Court cases (Hodari D., Brendlin) |
Key Cases Cited
- Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (establishes investigatory stop standard requiring reasonable suspicion)
- California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621 (a seizure by show of authority requires submission; attempted seizures without submission are not Fourth Amendment seizures)
- United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544 (reasonable person test for seizure in view of all circumstances)
- Brendlin v. California, 551 U.S. 249 (no seizure without actual submission to show of authority)
- County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833 (attempted seizures beyond Fourth Amendment scope)
- Smith v. State, 217 Ga. App. 680 (being chased does not by itself constitute a Fourth Amendment seizure)
- Sims v. State, 258 Ga. App. 662 (abandonment while fleeing not fruit of a seizure)
- Gray v. State, 254 Ga. App. 487 (no seizure where suspect fled and did not submit)
- Brown v. State, 239 Ga. App. 674 (abandoned contraband during flight not product of an illegal arrest)