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State v. Hughes3/17/2000
s asserts that her particular characteristics made her vulnerable to coercion. She cites factors regularly considered by courts in determining voluntariness, including her age, education, emotional state, and prior experience with police. However, Hughes, at 20 years old, was not a minor at the time of the search. See Phillips, 218 Wis. 2d at 202. She had completed the eleventh grade, and has presented no evidence of below average intelligence or abilities. See id. Although Hughes herself had no prior record, she had lived for over a year in a building that was often the subject of drug sweeps by the Milwaukee Police Department. She could not have been completely unfamiliar with the police. We are not persuaded that Hughes was unusually susceptible to coercion.
. Hughes also argues that the officers' failure to inform her that she had the right to refuse consent to the search made her particularly vulnerable to involuntary acquiescence in it. Although this factor generally weighs against a determination of voluntary consent, it is not the only factor in the analysis and does not mandate a finding of involuntariness. Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 227 (1973). Under the circumstances of this case, this factor is not significant enough to tip the balance against a finding of voluntary consent.
. We hold, therefore, that the police officers' entry into Vanessa Hughes' apartment to search for evidence of marijuana possession was supported by probable cause and justified by exigent circumstances. We also find, based upon her words and actions, that Hughes voluntarily consented to the search of her person. Thus, the circuit court properly denied Hughes' motion to suppress, and the decision of the court of appeals is reversed.
By the Court. -- The decision of the court of appeals is reversed.
. ANN WALSH BRADLEY, J. (dissenting). In the late afternoon of June 4, 1996, officers purportedly with guns drawn barged into a two-bedroom apartment in the City of Milwaukee because they smelled the odor of marijuana. They could have, but did not, obtain a search warrant. Instead, fearful that the evidence of a first offense possession of marijuana might be destroyed, they made a warrantless entry.
. The "physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed." United States v. United States Dist. Court, 407 U.S. 297, 313 (1972). In no setting is the "zone of privacy more clearly defined than when bounded by the unambiguous physical dimensions of an individual's home." Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 589 (1980). Accordingly, warrantless searches and seizures inside a home are "presumptively unreasonable." Id. at 586.
. The heightened protection afforded by the Fourth Amendment generally requires the issuance of a warrant by a neutral magistrate before the police may enter the thresholds of our residences. This constitutional requirement is not a mere formality. The neutral magistrate decides when our right to privacy must yield to the police need for intrusion. A warrantless entry, as here, negates the role of the neutral magistrate and circumvents constitutional protections.
. This court has recognized the limited exceptions to warrantless searches, including exigent circumstances based on the destruction of evidence. State v. Kiper, 193 Wis. 2d 69, 89-90, 532 N.W.2d 698 (1995). Unfortunately, the majority's validation of the facts of the present case as exigent circumstances threatens to swallow the rule by relaxing the restraint embodied in the Fourth Amendment. The destruction of marijuana upon which the officers justified their search of Hughes's home does not rise to the
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