Opinion

Pearson v. State

  • 356 So. 2d 776
  • 1978 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1309
Court
Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
Filed
Mar 21, 1978
Status
Published
Author
Bookout
On the bench
Simmons, Bookout
Cited by
1 cases
Authority
More cited than 25.6%

The opinion

BOOKOUT, Judge,

concurring specially:

From a vacant lot adjoining the appellant’s premises, the officers could see the items of clothing lying in plain view on the back steps of appellant’s residence. Their initial discovery of that evidence was therefore not illegal or the results of an unreasonable “search” in violation of the Fourth Amendment. They were not therefore required to obtain a search warrant in order to cross the invisible property line into appellant’s open back yard to retrieve the clothing lying in an open area. The Fourth Amendment protects people, not simply places. The appellant had no expectation of privacy in that area of his back yard open to view to any passers-by. Cf. Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 , 88 S.Ct. 507 , 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967); Mancusi v. DeForte, 392 U.S. 364 , 88 S.Ct. 2120 , 20 L.Ed.2d 1154 (1968); Cardwell v. Lewis, 417 U.S. 583 , 94 S.Ct. 2464 , 41 L.Ed.2d 325 (1974); United States v. Santana, 427 U.S. 38 , 96 S.Ct. 2406 , 49 L.Ed.2d 300 (1976); United States v. Miller, 425 U.S. 435 , 96 S.Ct. 1619 , 48 L.Ed.2d 71 (1976); South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364 , 96 S.Ct. 3092 , 49 L.Ed.2d 1000 (1976). I therefore would assign the foregoing as additional authority for the warrantless seizure of the clothing in question.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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