Court Opinion

ID: 9884954
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 03:26:01.875885+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:42.827643
License: Public Domain

Mr. Chief Justice Underwood, dissenting: I cannot agree that the seizure by the officer of the contents of the box was invalid. As reiterated by the United States Supreme Court, “ ‘what the Constitution forbids is not all searches and seizures, but unreasonable searches and seizures.’ Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 222, 4 L. Ed. 2d 1669, 1680, 80 S. Ct. 1437 (1960).” (Terry v. Ohio (1968), 392 U.S. 1, 9, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889, 899, 88 S. Ct. 1868, 1873.) In this case, defendant had been lawfully arrested. In the course of putting on his trousers before accompanying the officer to the station, defendant was observed by the officer to remove the box from his pocket and place it on the dresser. His action in doing so would normally raise in the minds of most persons an immediate question as to his reason for wanting to rid himself of the box and its contents before going to the police station. This, in my judgment, constituted probable cause to inspect the contents of the box. People v. Hanna, 42 Ill.2d 323, 330-31; People v. Owens, 41 Ill.2d 465, 467; People v. Martinez, 257 Cal. App. 2d 270, 64 Cal. Rptr. 666, 667. We “must evaluate the reasonableness of a particular search or seizure in light of the particular circumstances. And in making that assessment it is imperative that the facts be judged against an objective standard: would the facts available to the officer at the moment of the seizure or the search ‘warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief’ that the action taken was appropriate ? Cf. Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 69 L. Ed. 543, 45 S. Ct. 280, 39 A.L.R. 790 (1925); Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 96-97, 13 L. Ed. 2d 142, 147, 148, 85 S. Ct. 223, 229 (1964).” (Terry v. Ohio (1968), 392 U.S. 1, 21-22, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889, 906, 88 S. Ct. 1868, 1880.) This case, I believe, is simply a situation in which the defendant’s conduct gave the officer reasonable grounds for believing that a criminal offense had been committed having some connection with the contents of the box. As a reasonable and prudent officer should, he examined it. I would'affirm denial of the motion to suppress and the judgment of conviction. Mr. Justice Crebs joins in this dissent.