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WA: Granting deference to the warrant, the affidavit was sufficient as to showing time

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The affidavit used the phrase “within the last 48 hours,” and it wasn’t clear whether that meant when the CI reported it or saw it. The trial court read it narrowly, but that was not faithful to the “canons of construction” that affidavits for search warrants get a common sense reading with a purpose of deferring to search warrants to encourage officers to get search warrants. State v. Lyons, 2011 Wash. App. LEXIS 374 (February 10, 2011): ¶13 This analysis would be appropriate and helpful if the court were analyzing a contract, where the language was the product of negotiation by business people and their lawyers. ... But this is not a contract between business people and their lawyers. Mr. Lyons and the police did not sit down with lawyers and draft the language of this affidavit...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on February 14, 2011 (boomark / email).