State v. Guy

SHERAN, Chief Justice. The trial court, after a suppression hearing, certified as important and doubtful issues of standing of defendants who relied on doctrine of automatic standing for pos-sessory offenses. The doubt was over whether Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128 , 99 S.Ct. 421 , 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978), which abolished automatic standing as a matter of federal constitutional law for nonpossessory offenses, also applied to possessory offenses. While this appeal was pending the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Salvucci, - U.S. -, 100 S.Ct. 2547 , 65 L.Ed.2d 619 (1980) and Rawlings v. Kentucky - U.S. - 100 S.Ct. 2556 , 65 L.Ed.2d 633 (1980), decided this issue, rejecting the doctrine of automatic standing as a matter of federal constitutional law in the context of possessory offenses. Accordingly, the justification for certification in this case no longer exists. As in Salvucci , we remand to the trial court so that defendants may have the opportunity to demonstrate, if they can, that their-own Fourth Amendment rights were violated. We leave for post-trial appeal, if any, the issue whether as a matter of state constitutional law the doctrine of automatic standing should have continued vitality in this context. Remanded.