3.28Invalidity of Search Warrant and Suppression of Evidence

The invalidity of a portion of a search warrant does not require suppression of all seized evidence. Instead, trial courts are to sever any tainted portions of the warrant—e.g., those portions that lack probable cause or do not sufficiently describe the place, property, or person—from the valid portions. Severance has been explained as follows:

“Severance does not ratify the invalid portions of the warrant, but recognizes that we need not completely invalidate a warrant on the basis of issues that are not related to the evidence validly seized. Where items are validly seized, a defect in a severable portion of the warrant should not be used to suppress the validly seized evidence.” People v Kolniak, 175 Mich App 16, 22-23 (1989).

See also People v Melotik, 221 Mich App 190, 202-203 (1997), where the case was remanded to the district court to “consider whether the facts contained in the second affidavit, after redaction of the facts arising solely from defendant’s inadmissible statement, established probable cause to issue the second warrant.”

Even where a search warrant issued from an affidavit is later found insufficient in light of the requirements of MCL 780.653, the evidence obtained in execution of the faulty warrant may still be admissible against a defendant. In People v Hawkins, 468 Mich 488, 501 (2003), the defendant moved to suppress evidence obtained pursuant to a search warrant based on an affidavit that failed to satisfy the requirements of MCL 780.653(b) for an affiant’s reliance on unnamed sources. The Court held that “[n]othing in the plain language of [MCL 780.653] provides us with a sound basis for concluding that the Legislature intended that noncompliance with its affidavit requirements, standing alone, justifies application of the exclusionary rule to evidence obtained by police in reliance on a search warrant.” Hawkins, 468 Mich at 510. The Court concluded that suppression of the evidence was not required as a remedy for the violation of MCL 780.653(b). Hawkins, 468 Mich at 512.