Cite as 356 Ark. 460 (2004)
have to advise them that they may refuse to consent. (Emphasis added.) The majority opinion completely ignores Rule 11.1, and instead reaches a conclusion which is in clear conflict with the rule.
After the dissenting opinion cited King v. State, 262 Ark. 342, 557 S.W.2d 386 (1977), as controlling here, the majority court opted to overrule, rather than follow it. The King court considered the very issue now before us: whether Ark. Const. art. 2, § 15 requires that advice of the right to refuse consent be given by law enforcement officers before a consensual search may be found to be voluntary. In King, the court held no; here, the majority says yes. In other words, this court simply refuses to follow precedent.
Since the majority opinion fails to even so much as describe the facts or analyze the reasoning in King, I will. There, King was convicted of theft, and he contended the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence secured by a warrantless search. He asserted the search was unreasonable under the federal Fourth Amendment and Ark. Const. art. 2, § 15. The trial court ruled that the search was conducted pursuant to a valid consent, and rejected King's argument that a search warrant should have been obtained. Citing Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218 (1973), this court upheld the lower court, stating: "[it] is equally well settled that one of the specifically established exceptions to the requirements of both a warrant and probable cause is a search that is conducted pursuant to consent."
As in the present case, the King court dealt with whether the State failed to prove that the consent was voluntarily given because of the coercive nature of the confrontation. The King court stated the general rule that the voluntariness of consent is a question of fact to be determined from the totality of the circumstances, and the burden is on the State to prove that consent was voluntarily given by clear and positive proof. Id.
Here, the key issue to consider is whether the trial court was correct in ruling that the officers' search could have met constitutional muster only if they had informed Jaye M. Brown, Michael C. Williams' co-occupant, that she had the right to refuse consent before any consensual search would be valid under the Arkansas Constitution. This court decided the issue in the King decision, which reads as follows:
Appellant [King] further argues that even if the consent was voluntarily given, the state should be required to prove a knowing and
