Summary
The Supreme Court of Georgia held that a police officer’s command to Ernest Walker to remove his hands from his pockets did not constitute a Fourth Amendment seizure because Walker did not submit to the officer’s show of authority. The court concluded that Walker abandoned cocaine and related drug paraphernalia before being physically apprehended, so the evidence was not obtained as the fruit of an unlawful seizure, and it reversed the Court of Appeals.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether Walker was seized under the Fourth Amendment when the officer directed him to remove his hands from his pockets but Walker did not comply and instead fled.
- Whether the cocaine and pipe were abandoned before any Fourth Amendment seizure and therefore were not fruits of an unlawful detention.
- Whether Georgia decisions could be read to hold that an officer's uncomplied-with command alone constitutes a Fourth Amendment seizure.
Holdings
- A police officer's command, without physical force or the suspect's submission to the assertion of authority, does not by itself constitute a seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Because Walker did not comply with the command to remove his hands from his pockets and instead fled, no seizure occurred at that time.
- The cocaine and pipe were abandoned before Walker was seized, so their discovery was not the fruit of a Fourth Amendment seizure and the trial court properly denied the motion to suppress.
- To the extent Sams v. State or any other Georgia appellate decision can be read to hold that an officer's uncomplied-with command alone constitutes a Fourth Amendment seizure without regard to Hodari D., those decisions are overruled.
Key quotations
“a command from a law enforcement officer, alone, is not sufficient to constitute a seizure for purposes of the Fourth Amendment.” (891)
“there is no seizure without actual submission” (892)
“to the extent that Sams, or any other decision of the appellate Courts of this State, can be read as standing for the proposition that an officer’s uncomplied-with command alone constitutes a seizure without regard to the holding of Hodari D., those cases are hereby overruled.” (895)
Factual background
At approximately 12:12 a.m., Officer David Adriance was patrolling near an elementary school after being advised to look for a black male in dark clothing suspected of attempting to steal a motorcycle. He encountered Walker, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and light-colored pants, and directed him to remove his hands from his pockets. Walker did not comply, became verbally combative, ran through backyards, and discarded crack cocaine and a crack pipe before the officer physically apprehended him.
Procedural history
After a jury convicted Walker of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and obstruction of a law enforcement officer, Walker challenged the denial of his pretrial motion to suppress. The Court of Appeals reversed the convictions, concluding that the officer's command that Walker remove his hands from his pockets created an investigatory detention unsupported by articulable suspicion. The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed the Court of Appeals.