NCJ Number
98481
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 74 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1984) Pages: 1249-1264
Date Published
1983
Length
16 pages
Annotation
In Illinois v. Gates, the U.S. Supreme Court abandoned the Aguilar-Spinelli test and adopted a totality-of-the circumstances approach to determine whether an informant's tip establishes probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant.
Abstract
The Aguilar-Spinelli test requires the police to The Aguilar-Spinelli test requires the police to inform a magistrate of the circumstances supporting the informant's allegation of criminal activity. It further requires the police to demonstrate that the informant is credible or that his information is reliable. In 'Gates,' Justice Rehnquist, in speaking for the majority, stated that the totality-of-the-circumstances test is more consistent with the Court's prior treatment of probable cause than the Aguilar-Spinelli test. Although rigid, the Aguilar-Spinelli standards assisted magistrates' determinations of probable cause by ensuring warrants were issued only on the basis of reliable informant information. The totality-of-circumstances test requires magistrates to consider all the information in the affidavit, including the informer's reliability, credibility, and basis of knowledge. The test, however, provides no practical guidance on the relative weights to be assigned to any of these considerations. The 'Gates' decision also held that 'innocent' activity (as opposed to law-breaking activity) by the suspects can corroborate informant information to establish the probable cause sufficient for a search warrant. To establish probable cause, corroborated details should involve criminal activity, since the informant may have willfully or mistakenly interpreted the innocent activity as a sign of nonexistent, unobserved criminal activity. A total of 103 footnotes are provided.