Martin Burke appeals from a judgment of the District Court for Connecticut convicting him, on a plea of guilty, of unlawful possession of an unregistered, sawed-off shotgun in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d) and 5871. 1 The basis for appeal is an alleged error of Chief Judge Clarie in denying, without an evidentiary hearing, a motion to suppress the shotgun because of the asserted invalidity of the search warrant under which the gun was seized from Burke’s home in Hartford.
We deal preliminarily with the question whether the issue is properly before us. We said in United States v. Doyle,
[t]he cases are legion that “[a] plea of guilty to an indictment is an admission of guilt and a waiver of all non-jurisdictional defects.”
However, we recognized, as the Supreme Court apparently had done without discussion in Jaben v. United States,
The search warrant, issued in Hartford by Judge J. Robert Lacey of the Circuit Court of Connecticut, authorized the search of Burke’s apartment for a sawed-off shotgun therein described. Both the warrant and the Affidavit and Application for it were on Connecticut state forms. The Affidavit and Application was signed and sworn to by two members of the Connecticut State Police and a member of the United States Treasury Department, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division. In the portion of the Affidavit and Application following the description of the property to be seized, the name of the person said to possess it, and the identification of the place to be searched, there was a printed legend which says, in reference to the property, that it “is or has been or may be used as the means of committing the crime of”. This statement had been completed with the following: “To receive or Possess a Firearm, which is not Registered to Him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record. Title 26, USC Sec. 58-61d[5861(d)].” The allegations of probable cause were
4. That, on 8-21 — 73, at 0755 hrs., Lonnie C. Thompson, of 104 Kensington St., Htfd., Conn., was interviewed and submitted a written statement and will testify to the fact that on 8 — 20—73, at 1645 hrs., he was in Apt. # 3, on 279 Westland St., Htfd., Conn., resided in by Martin Burke, and had seen a sawed-off shotgun in the apartment’s bedroom.
5. That, Thompson further states, that he has been told by Burke that the shotgun was stolen in a burglary.
6. That, as a result of the receipt of the information a check was conducted to search the National Firearms Register and Transfer Record, in Washington D. C. Special Agent Hampp was informed that no record could be found of any firearm registered to Martin Burke, of 279 Westland St., Htfd., Conn., this being a violation of Title 26, USC Sec. 58-61d[5861(d)].
Burke contends that the warrant was bad on its face because of the inadequacy of its showing of probable cause and *380 because of the failure of the warrant to comply with certain requirements of F.R.Crim.P. 41(c).
I.
The contention of an inadequate showing of probable cause is bottomed on the absence from the affidavit of a'recital that Thompson was known to the affiants to be a reliable informant, as Aguilar v. Texas,
A pioneering case in this development was McCreary v. Sigler,
To require a showing of previous reliability by such a person would, as in the case of a victim or a witness, see Wisconsin v. Paszek,50 Wis.2d 619 ,184 N.W.2d 836 (1971), make his information totally unavailable, despite the peculiar likelihood of its accuracy. Such information is toto coelo removed from a “meager report” that “could easily have been obtained from an offhand remark heard at a neighborhood bar”, as to which prior history of providing accurate information is required. Spinelli v. United States,393 U.S. 410 , 417,89 S.Ct. 584 , 589,21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969).
United States v. Miley,
Viewed in the light of these decisions, the affidavit was sufficient; it made evident that Thompson had been in the bedroom of Burke’s apartment and had talked with Burke about the gun, or at least that he had said so. See United States v. Sultan,
supra,
II.
The search warrant, which, as stated, was on a Connecticut form, did not conform with the requirements of F.R. Crim.P. 41(c) in three respects:
(1) Whereas the Rule requires that “[t]he warrant shall be directed to a civil officer of the United States authorized to enforce or assist in enforcing any law thereof or to a person so authorized by the President of the United States,” the warrant was directed to “any Police Officer of a regularly organized police department or any State Policeman to whom these presents shall come”;
(2) Whereas the Rule requires that the warrant shall command the officer to make the search “within a specified period of time not to exceed 10 days,” the warrant commanded the officers to make the search “within a reasonable time”; and
(3) Whereas the Rule requires the warrant to “designate a federal magistrate to whom it shall be returned,” *382 the warrant contemplated that the return be made to the issuing judge.
Any contention that Rule 41(c) never applies when the warrant is issued by a state judge would be clearly unsound. Rule 41(a) permits “a search warrant authorized by this rule” to “be issued by a federal magistrate or a judge of a state court of record within the district wherein the property is located, upon request of a federal law enforcement officer or an attorney for the government.” The obvious reason for including judges of state courts of record was that they are far more plentiful than the small corps of federal magistrates. Nothing in the language or polir cy of Rule 41 suggests, however, that warrants issued by them at the request of a federal law enforcement officer are exempt from the Rule’s content requirements.
On the other hand, the mere fact that property seized pursuant to the warrant of a state judge at the request of state law enforcement officers for violation of state law is offered in a federal prosecution does not implicate the requirements of the Rule; in such cases it is sufficient if the warrant meets the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. See United States v. Bowling,
The cases that have caused difficulty are those where warrants have been issued by state judges as the result of a mingling of state and federal law enforcement. A leading decision for applying Rule 41 requirements is Navarro v. United States,
supra,
The crux of the doctrine is that a search is a search by a federal official if he had a hand in it * * *. It is immaterial whether a federal agent originated the idea or joined in it while the search was in progress. So long as he was in it before the object of the search was completely accomplished, he must be deemed to have participated in it.
However, the Fifth Circuit has somewhat qualified
Navarro
in United States v. Sellers,
The proper test to be applied is whether a particular Rule 41 standard is one designed to assure reasonableness on the part of federal officers, or whether the provision merely blueprints the procedure for issuance of federal warrants. 7
However all this may be, we have no difficulty in concluding that the warrant issued by Judge Lacey here was “a federal warrant” which, as the Sellers court conceded, must comply with the requirements of Rule 41. The only crime alleged in the Affidavit and Application was a federal crime, the violation of the National Firearms Registration Act. The Government argues that the affidavit disclosed a case within Connecticut General Statutes § 54-33a(b)(2), authorizing a search warrant where there is probable cause to believe that the property to be seized was stolen, and perhaps also § 54-33a(b)(l), authorizing a search warrant where there is probable cause to believe there is property “possessed ... or intended for use or which is or has been used or which may be used as the means of committing any criminal offense,” since a sawed-off shotgun is “inherently likely” to be so used. The argument continues that because “the instant warrant may just as easily . be viewed as a state warrant,” the officers’ hasty selection of a particular statute should not result in “an ironclad characterization” of the warrant as a federal one. But Judge Lacey had not been asked to find probable cause under the Connecticut statute and might not have done so. The warrant, sought by a federal law enforcement officer, along with state officers, for a particular federal offense, is far more clearly a federal warrant than those in either Navarro or Sellers.
The Government argues that even if this be so, the provisions of Rule 41 that were violated were not ones “designed to assure reasonableness on the part of federal officers,” but “merely blueprint the procedure for issuance of federal warrants”, see United States v. Sellers,
supra,
However, this conclusion does not demand a decision in Burke’s favor. The Government argues with more persuasiveness that the violations of Rule 41 here shown were not of sufficient consequence to justify use of the exclusionary rule. 10 It says in brief, although there is no proof of this in the record on appeal, that in fact the federal agent was one of those who set about to execute the warrant, see infra; that this was done oh the same day that the warrant issued; that a copy of the warrant and in inventory of the seized property were left at Burke’s apartment; and that a return was made to the issuing court by a state officer on the following day.
There is relatively little case law on the question how far the failure of a warrant to conform to provisions of Rule 41 other than those concerned with the constitutional requirements of probable cause and particularity of description will trigger the exclusionary rule. While
Navarro
applied the exclusionary rule, the defect there was basic; since the issuing judge was not of “a state court of record”, there was in effect no warrant at all for federal purposes. In United States v. Ravich,
In United States v. Dunnings,
While it might have been better if the district court had offered to allow Burke to go into these matters at a hearing, counsel has made no claim that he could offer evidence that would bring the case within our formulation of circumstances making it appropriate to apply the exclusionary rule to the infractions of Rule 41 here at issue. 17 We see no purpose in remanding for a hearing when counsel has made no showing of reason to think that, under our view of the law, any purpose would be served thereby.
Affirmed.
Notes
. Burke was sentenced to two years imprisonment, execution of which was suspended, and placed on three years probation.
. Although there is much sound and fury between the parties as to the existence of probable cause to arrest, we choose not to venture into the mostly visceral concept of probable cause, for a specter has arisen in this case that deserves to be laid to rest. It is now a well-settled and familiar concept, as enunciated by
Aguilar
and
Spinelli,
that supporting affidavits in an application for a search warrant must attest to the credibility of an informant and the reliability of his information. See
also
United States v. Harris,
(footnote omitted).
. We are not prepared, however, to accept the further suggestion in the
Gillespie
opinion that Rule 41 is “only a procedural prescription as to the issuance of warrants by the federal courts,”
.
Navarro
itself led to interesting sequelae. See United States v. Navarro,
. Here the court said:
Moreover, we specifically decline to adopt any rule under our supervisory power that would require that state court warrants meet all of the Rule 41 procedural requirements whenever federal officers have sufficient evidence of federal law violations to obtain a federal warrant. Such a rule would not only serve no useful purpose, but it would also place officers acting jointly on the horns of a dilemma in deciding whether to charge a state or federal crime. Such officials should be free to make a considered choice based on the best available information and unencumbered by merely technical procedural rules.
(Footnote omitted).
. The question presented here, where the search was conducted by federal and state officers under the authority of a warrant issued by a state court on the affidavit of a state officer which averred that evidence of a state crime might be found, is whether Navarro I requires the suppression of the fruits of that search in a federal prosecution because the warrant was not secured through procedures which complied in all respects with the requirements of Rule 41.
Properly read, Rule 41 grants the authority to designated judicial officers, federal and state, to issue federal search warrants. The authority granted to state courts under this rule is in addition to the state-vested power of those courts to issue a warrant upon a showing that probable cause exists to believe a violation of state law has occurred. While Rule 41 sets out the 'procedure to be followed in issuing a warrant for a violation of federal law, it obviously should not be contemplated that the federal rule would purport to regulate the procedures through which state courts 'may issue search warrants predicated on violations of state law.
A federal court reviewing the sufficiency of a warrant issued by a state court, for the purpose of determining whether the fruits of a resulting search are lawful and hence admissible in a federal prosecution, must determine whether the warrant was issued as a federal warrant or as a state warrant. If the warrant was issued under authority of Rule 41 as a federal warrant clearly it must comply with the requirements of the rule. If, however, the warrant was issued under authority of state law then every requirement of Rule 41 is not a sine qua non to federal court use of the fruits of a search predicated on the warrant, even though federal officials participated in its procuration or execution. The products of a search conducted under the authority of a validly issued state warrant are lawfully obtained for federal prosecutorial purposes if that warrant satisfies constitutional requirements and does not contravene any Rule-embodied policy designed to protect the integrity of the federal courts or to govern the conduct of federal officers.
Id. at 43.
. The court continued:
The case sub judice presents a paradigm of the latter class of requirements. The federal crime essential of Brouillette is a recognition of the inherent limits of the authority granted by Rule 41 to federal and state magistrates to issue federal search warrants. It does not exist to limit the activities of federal officers when they cooperate with state officers. We decline to apply this particular Rule 41 requirement to state warrants.
. The original version of Rule 41(c), adopted pursuant to the Act of June 29, 1940, ch. 445, 54 Stat. 688, effective March 21, 1964, contains in substance the requirements of the current rule with respect to the warrant’s being directed “to a civil officer of the United States” and of designation of the federal judi
*385
cial officer to whom it shall be returned. The Advisory Committee Notes say only that “[t]his rule is a restatement of existing law, 18 U.S.C. 613-616, 620; Dumbra v. United States,
. These include the fixing of responsibility if the warrant is not executed, enabling the magistrate to make a determination before the search that an appropriate officer will serve the warrant, providing a record for 'any judicial determination after the search with respect to whether the authorized officer conducted the search, and helping the person whose premises are searched to guard against searches conducted by imposters.
. The Government has chosen to cast this argument as a challenge, for which we perceive no basis, to Burke’s “standing”. Insofar as the argument rests on a passage in United States v. Gannon,
. A note to § 290.2 in Proposed Official Draft, April 15, 1975, states:
Subsection (1) specifies that a motion to suppress may be based upon a violation of any provision of the Code, and then lists, for descriptive purposes, the principal grounds upon which such motions have been, or are likely to be, based.
The Commentary at 219 of Official Draft No. 1 and 563-64 of the Proposed Official Draft of the completed Code states:
With few exceptions, the Code contemplates exclusion only where the defect is of constitutional dimension. If the things seized were not lawfully subject to seizure, or if the issuing official had no authority to issue the warrant, plainly exclusion is called for. On the other hand, defects in the issuance process or the contents of the warrant do not support a motion to suppress unless they are of such magnitude as to trigger the “probable cause” and “particularly describing” limitations of the Fourth Amendment.
The important exceptions to this are execution of the warrant at a time not authorized therein or at nighttime or more than five days after issuance without the findings necessary thereto (but not the failure of the warrant to require execution within five days), execution of the warrant by an officer who, prior to entry, fails to give notice of his authority and purpose unless he has reasonable cause to believe that such notice would endanger successful execution, and a search exceeding the scope of the warrant.
. In contrast to cases involving confessions ' or identifications, where exclusion not only may tend to enforce decent police practices but may prevent the introduction of unreliable evidence, exclusion in Fourth Amendment cases generally can serve only the former function. See Linkletter v. Walker,
. In light of Miller v. United States,
. What we mean is neatly illustrated by comparing two cases of nighttime searches, United States v. Ravich,
supra,
. Although in most cases the result under our formulation will not differ from that under .the “blueprint” test suggested in United States v. Sellers,
supra,
. It should be noted that the “illustratiye” form of warrant, Form 15, appended to the Rules of Criminal Procedure, is defective in failing to provide for “a specified period of time not to exceed 10 days” as required by Rule 41(c).
. Indeed, it seems quite likely that at a hearing the Government could show that reliance on the search warrant was unnecessary. Its brief tells us that the federal agent and one of the Connecticut policemen heard a gunshot as they entered Burke’s apartment, that a Connecticut trooper who was positioned outside the apartment building saw a man leave the apartment at the same time, and that, once inside the apartment, the federal agent and the Connecticut policeman saw Burke lying wounded on the floor with a sawed-off shotgun at his side. On such facts the entry might well be justifiable as based on reasonable cause to believe that a state crime had been committed and the seizure on the basis that the gun was in plain view. Cf. United States v. Hall,
