Pennsylvania v. Wilson (majority)
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The Supreme Court granted allocatur to consider whether a probation condition authorizing warrantless, suspicionless searches of a probationer's home violated statutory and constitutional precepts. In 2007, a Philadelphia police officer observed appellant standing next to a parked automobile. Appellant was pointing a handgun through the passenger window at the driver. The police officer ordered appellant to drop his weapon. Appellant did not comply, but instead, gun in hand, retreated to a nearby residence. The police officer repeated his demand that appellant drop his weapon. Appellant finally complied, and placed himself on the ground in compliance with the officer's direction. The police officer, and a second officer who arrived on the scene in response to a call for back up, retrieved a loaded .38 caliber revolver. Police also recovered seven packets of marijuana and five packets of cocaine from appellant. The trial court instead sentenced appellant to a mitigated-range sentence of 2.5 to 5 years' incarceration, to be followed by three years' probation. The trial court emphasized that there was no stricter probation than Gun Court probation. As a condition of probation and of parole, the trial court authorized warrantless, suspicionless searches of appellant's residence for weapons, and prohibited him from residing in a household where anyone had a firearm. In matters that raise both constitutional and non-constitutional bases for relief, the Supreme Court attempts to resolve matters on non-constitutional grounds as practicable. In this case, the Court found under the applicable statutory construct of this case, sentencing courts were not empowered to direct that a probation officer may conduct warrantless, suspicionless searches of a probationer as a condition of probation. As such, the probation condition ordered in this case was vacated to the extent that the sentencing court found it permissible, and the case was remanded for resentencing.
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