Required Documents and Steps in the Warrant Issuance Process

• Jurisdiction: Maryland

II. Required documents and steps in the warrant issuance process

A warrant is an order signed by a judge or other authorized person commanding a law enforcement officer to arrest the person named in the warrant or search for and seize property as described in it. Md. Rule 1-202(ee). A search warrant is intended to protect individuals from arbitrary governmental intrusion. Birchfield v. North Dakota, 579 U.S. 438, 480 (2016); City of Annapolis v. United Food & Commercial Workers, Local 400, 317 Md. 544 (1989).

A search warrant requires probable cause, presented under oath or affirmation, to a neutral and detached judicial officer, sufficient to believe that particularly identified fruits, evidence, and/or instrumentalities of a crime will be found in a particularly identified place. See, e.g., Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 467 (1971); State v. Copes, 454 Md. 581, 618-19 (2017). The warrant process requires three documents, including (a) an affidavit; (b) a warrant application; and (c) a warrant. These documents are filed with the clerk of the court after the search warrant is executed and returned. Md. Rule 4-601.

An arrest warrant requires probable cause, presented under oath or affirmation, sufficient to believe that a crime was committed, and the named arrestee committed it. See Md. Rule 4-212; Schaefer v. State, 31 Md. App. 437, 443-44 (1976).

A. Jurisdiction to issue a warrant

Md. Code Ann., Crim. Proc. § 1-203(a), provides that a Circuit Court judge or a District Court judge may issue a warrant

whenever it is made to appear to the judge . . . that there is probable cause to believe that: (i) a misdemeanor or felony is being committed by a person or in a building, apartment premises, place, or thing within the territorial jurisdiction or the judge; or (ii) property subject to seizure under the criminal laws of the State is on the person or in or on the building, apartment, premises, place, or thing.

Id.

The language "under the criminal laws of the State" does not preclude a magistrate from issuing a search or seizure warrant for evidence of a violation of the laws of another State because the "the only jurisdictional requirement imposed . . . is that the property to be seized be located within the territorial jurisdiction of the issuing judge." State v. Intercontinental, Ltd., 302 Md. 132, 140 (1985) (interpreting Md. Ann. Code, art. 27 § 551(a), which was replaced by section 1-203).

A District Court judge has jurisdiction to issue a search warrant that may be executed anywhere in the State. A Circuit Court judge may issue a warrant to be executed only in the county where the Circuit Court is located. Birchead v. State, 317 Md. 691, 698 (1989); Brown v. State, 153 Md. App. 544, 576-77 (2003), cert. denied, 380 Md. 618 (2004).

A search warrant issued to law enforcement officers in one jurisdiction may be executed by law enforcement officers from another jurisdiction as long as officers from the issuing jurisdiction participate in the search. See Daniels v. State, 172 Md. App. 75, 116 (2006) (search permissible when proper authorities with jurisdiction supervise a search); see also Brown v. State, 364 Md. 37, 45 (2001) (Bell, C.J., dissenting) ("A search warrant issued by one jurisdiction does not have extra-territorial effect, such that it can be executed by the officials of the issuing jurisdiction in another jurisdiction, without the knowledge or assistance of that other jurisdiction. That is so clear that bad faith can be attributed to the officers for proceeding as they did.").

In Berigan v. State, 2 Md. App. 666 (1968), the Court of Special Appeals noted: "[A] warrant of arrest issued in Maryland may not lawfully be executed in the District of Columbia for the Maryland warrant has no validity beyond the boundaries of the State. . . ." Id. at 668-69. Md. Code Ann., Crim. Proc. § 2-103(b), provides:

A police officer may arrest a person throughout the State without limitations as to jurisdiction if: (1) a warrant had been issued

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