The Wire

For my "Capital Focus" piece this week for The Associated Press, I took a crack at the most-debated ruling from the latest term of the state Supreme Court.

The 3-2 ruling in State v. Mullens concluded that the search and seizure protections in the West Virginia Constitution require a warrant for an informant to enter a suspect's home while wired for electronic surveillance.

Law enforcement object to the ruling, as it leaves them with only five circuit judges statewide with the power to issue the necessary warrants. Gov. Joe Manchin has been urged to add the issue to a special session agenda, and he's weighing his options.

I try to point out that the 50-page ruling reflects research into how the other states have approached electronic surveillance. Only a relative handful have statutes or court decision that speak to sending a wired informant into someone's home, this research found.

If they are inclined to react to it, the ruling offers lawmakers and Manchin several options. In Wisconsin, for instance, a similar decision prompted legislation to create an exception allowing wired informants into homes without warrants in felony drug investigations. Florida voters responded by amending that state's constitution.

I also note that this hot-potato decision overrules a previous Supreme Court opinion, an infrequent event. Interestingly, lawyers for both the defendant and prosecutors missed this 1986 opinion in presenting their arguments to the court. Each also cited only a few of the 15 or so court cases from other states that address the issue.

Representing Boone County prosecutors in the appeal, the attorney general's office did cite the severely critical dissents that rulings in some of these other states had sparked. The same proved true in West Virginia: Justices Brent Benjamin and Elliott "Spike" Maynard each lambasted the majority in separate dissents to the Mullens decision.

The Register-Herald of Beckley follows up by asking Manchin about the prospects for a special legislative session. And then there's this take by West Virginia Media.