Warrant question interests court

SANDPOINT — The Idaho Supreme Court is open to clarifying criminal rules governing the service of daytime search warrants.

The basis for daytime-only search warrants is for the protection of persons at night, a time when they have a heightened expectation of privacy. Idaho magistrates have the discretion to decide when a search warrant can be served.

The question of amending Idaho’s daytime warrant service standard was raised in a Bonner County man’s appeal of a ruling in a felony marijuana case dating back to 2007.

Chief Public Defender Isabella Robertson moved in 1st District Court to suppress evidence in Robert W. Skurlock’s case because Sandpoint Police served the warrant at about 6 p.m. Robertson presented U.S. Naval Observatory records indicating the sun set shortly before 5:30 p.m. on the day in question.

Judge Steve Verby declined the motion because of a 1987 Idaho Court of Appeals case which defined daytime as dawn to darkness, where there is insufficient natural light to distinguish a person’s features.

Skurlock, now 47, entered a conditional plea of guilt to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and was ordered to serve one to two years in prison. Jurisdiction was retained, which qualified Skurlock for release onto probation after serving six months.

The sentence, however, was stayed pending appeal to the high court.

Skurlock’s appellate public defender did not dispute aspects of Verby’s ruling, but did urge justices to consider the adoption of Utah’s “bright-line” standard, which prohibits service of a daytime warrant a half hour after sunset or a half an hour before sunrise.

Justices ruled that Skurlock had no viable grounds upon which to grant an appeal, but held that the question of amending Idaho’s criminal rules for daytime warrant service had merit.

In a lengthy footnote to the Supreme Court’s Jan. 5 opinion, Justice Jim Jones acknowledged that the current standard in Idaho is subjective and does not account for artificial ambient lighting. However, Jones said the matter is most appropriately addressed through an amendment to Idaho Criminal Rules.

Justice Warren E. Jones concurred, but suggested that the state consider defining daytime as the hours between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., a standard observed in federal criminal court rules.

“The rule would provide a bright line that all the State’s magistrates can easily and uniformly follow,” Warren Jones wrote.