Summary
The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed James Allen Morgan's convictions after holding that a drug-dog sniff of the exterior of a vehicle was not a search under the Fourth Amendment. The court declined to decide whether the Wyoming Constitution provides greater protection because Morgan did not present a sufficient independent state constitutional analysis. The court also held that Morgan waived challenges to the drug dog's reliability and probable cause by failing to raise those issues in the district court.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether an exterior canine sniff of a vehicle constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment.
- Whether Article 1, Section 4 of the Wyoming Constitution provides greater protection against warrantless canine sniffs than the Fourth Amendment.
- Whether Morgan preserved an appellate challenge to the reliability of the drug dog and the sufficiency of the dog's alert to establish probable cause.
Holdings
- A canine sniff of the exterior of an automobile is not a search protected by the Fourth Amendment.
- The court declined to decide whether Article 1, Section 4 of the Wyoming Constitution provides greater protection than the Fourth Amendment because Morgan failed to present a sufficient independent state constitutional analysis.
- Morgan waived appellate review of the reliability and probable-cause arguments because he did not raise them in the district court and his conditional guilty plea preserved only the issues specified in his suppression motion.
Key quotations
“Therefore, we conclude that the particular course of investigation that the agents intended to pursue here exposure of the respondent's luggage, which was located in a public place, to a trained canine did not constitute a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.” (95 P.3d at 806)
“The fact that officers walk a narcotics-detection dog around the exterior of each car at the Indianapolis checkpoints does not transform the seizure into a search.” (95 P.3d at 807)
“We will not consider, in this case, whether Article 1, Section 4 of the Wyoming Constitution should be interpreted as including a dog sniff within its definition of unreasonable searches because Morgan failed to present a sufficient state constitutional analysis.” (95 P.3d at 809)
Factual background
Morgan and Daniel Fisher stopped on Interstate 25 in Laramie County after their vehicle experienced mechanical problems. After learning that Morgan had a prior drug conviction, a patrolman requested a canine unit, and a drug dog alerted during an exterior sniff of the vehicle. Fisher admitted that drugs and paraphernalia were in the vehicle and consented to a search of his person, while Morgan provided the vehicle keys; officers later searched Morgan's duffle bag after the dog alerted to it and found eight ounces of marijuana.
Procedural history
The State charged Morgan with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and possession of more than three ounces of marijuana. The district court denied his motion to suppress, after which Morgan entered a conditional guilty plea to felony possession of more than three ounces of marijuana and misdemeanor possession of marijuana. The district court imposed a suspended three-to-five-year prison sentence for the felony and sixty days in county jail for the misdemeanor. The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed.