Whiteley v. Warden, Wyoming State Penitentiary Case Brief

Whiteley v. Warden, Wyoming State Penitentiary, 401 U.S. 560, 91 S. Ct. 1031 (1971)

FACTS: Carbon County Sheriff Ogburn, acting on a tip, requested a warrant for Harold Whiteley, for burglary and theft from a local business. The affidavit read as follows:

I, C.W. Ogburn, do solemnly swear that on or about the 23 day of November, A.D. 1964, in the County of Carbon and the State of Wyoming, the said Harold Whitely and Jack Daley, defendants did then and there unlawfully break and enter a locked and sealed building…”

The description of the business followed. The information on Whitely and Daley was transmitted to other agencies. As a result of this BOLO, a Laramie police officer located and arrested Whitely and searched his vehicle, finding a number of items from the burglary.

ISSUE: Is a bare-bones conclusion sufficient to support a warrant?

HOLDING: No

DISCUSSION: The Court stated that while the Laramie officers were entitled to act upon the strength of the information they were given, that did not excuse what was otherwise an invalid warrant, and the evidence obtained should have been excluded at trial.