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Briggs v. State6/22/1999
45 (Miss. 1998). There is no reason to conclude that the court erred in this case by refusing to excuse for cause those jurors who honestly expressed their personal views on a subject but then affirmatively indicated their ability to decide Briggs's guilt on the law. We also observe that the jurors were, in all events, not asked whether someone who drinks any amount of alcohol and then drives a vehicle should be criminally punished in every instance. They were merely asked whether they thought it was an activity that should be done. There are many activities that a potential juror might refuse to condone without necessarily believing that someone engaging in those activities was involved in punishable criminal behavior.
II.
The Constitutionality of the Roadblock as a Means of Obtaining Evidence of Criminal Conduct
. Citing Michigan State Police v. Sitz, Briggs claims that the manner in which he was stopped by police officers violated his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizure, so that any evidence gleaned from that stop should be suppressed. Michigan State Police v. Sitz, 496 U.S. 444 (1990). Sitz involved a case where certain drivers had challenged the State of Michigan's authority to conduct roadblocks aimed at detecting possibly intoxicated drivers. Id. at 447. The United States Supreme Court found such roadblocks, though unquestionably constituting a seizure, to be a reasonable seizure when the minor inconvenience to a typical motorist of such a brief stop was balanced against the State's interest in combating the serious social problem of drunken drivers. Id. at 555.
. Briggs claims that the roadblock at which he was detained was not being conducted in the manner approved by the Supreme Court in Sitz in that there were no formally approved procedures in place. The State attempts to distinguish Sitz by saying that Briggs was stopped at a roadblock serving principally as a check for drivers licenses and vehicle registration and not one attempting to target intoxicated drivers. We conclude that such a distinction has no relevance in our decision process. The State arguably has an interest in ensuring that drivers of vehicles are properly licensed and that vehicles are properly registered and periodically inspected. The interest is not the same as that of keeping intoxicated operators off the roads, but it is nevertheless a legitimate state interest.The issue becomes, therefore, whether a roadblock intended principally to detect unlicenced drivers or improperly registered and uninspected vehicles is a constitutionally permissible undertaking. We find nothing in Michigan State Police v. Sitz to suggest that it is not. In fact, every indication is to the contrary. It is the issue of (a) roadblock-type checkpoints where every vehicle is stopped versus (b) random stops of individual vehicles not under any suspicion that seems to serve as the dividing line between constitutionally-permissible police activity and unreasonable intrusions into the personal security of motorists.
. Of course, as the Supreme Court suggested in U.S. v. Martinez-Fuerte, there is always the possibility that the facts of a particular roadblock may demonstrate some constitutional violation, but Briggs has pointed to no such facts in this case. U.S. v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 567 (1976).
. We decline to hold that law enforcement roadblocks of this nature are, as a general proposition, unconstitutional invasions of the personal security from unreasonable seizure afforded motorists under the Fourth Amendment.
III.
The Sufficiency of the Evidence
. Briggs alleges that the State failed to prove the offense. T
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