The People of the State of Illinois v. Roger Collins et al.
106 Ill.2d 237, 478 N.E.2d 267 (1985)
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Rule of Law:
A person does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment in the contents of a garbage bag placed in an openly accessible common area of a multi-unit apartment building.
Facts:
- On November 12, 1980, Frederick Lacey, R. C. Pettigrew, and Richard Holliman were taken from an apartment at 2240 South State Street in Chicago.
- The three men were driven to a viaduct at Roosevelt Road and Clark Street, where they were shot to death.
- Morris Nellum, an accomplice who testified for the prosecution, implicated Roger Collins and William Bracey in the crimes.
- On February 22, 1981, police officers returned to Collins's apartment building to interview neighbors.
- While on the second-floor landing, a common porch area shared by two apartments, officers noticed a garbage bag sitting next to Collins's back door.
- The officers searched the garbage bag and found photographs inside, one of which showed Collins wearing a wide-brim hat, a detail that corroborated witness testimony.
- Tenants of the building were instructed to place garbage in large containers on the ground floor, although some admittedly left bags on their back porches.
Procedural Posture:
- Roger Collins and William Bracey were indicted for armed robbery, aggravated kidnaping, and murder in the circuit court of Cook County, a trial court.
- Following a jury trial, Collins and Bracey were found guilty of each offense.
- A two-stage sentencing hearing was held, after which the same jury found aggravating factors existed and recommended the death penalty.
- The trial court sentenced the defendants to death for the murders and imposed concurrent 60-year prison sentences for the armed robbery and aggravated kidnaping convictions.
- The death sentences were automatically stayed pending a direct appeal by the defendants to the Supreme Court of Illinois.
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Issue:
Does a warrantless police search of a garbage bag left on an openly accessible common porch of a multi-unit apartment building violate the Fourth Amendment?
Opinions:
Majority - Justice Ryan
No. The warrantless search of the garbage bag did not violate the Fourth Amendment because the defendant, Roger Collins, did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in its contents. To invoke Fourth Amendment protection, a person must have a subjective expectation of privacy that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable. By placing the garbage bag in a common area of a multi-unit apartment building, which was openly accessible to other tenants, visitors, and the public, Collins relinquished any reasonable expectation of privacy. The court reasoned that the search was no more intrusive than what Collins might have expected from passing tenants, vagrants, or neighborhood children.
Dissenting - Chief Justice Clark
The dissent does not address the Fourth Amendment issue. Instead, it argues that the defendants' convictions should be reversed because their right to a fair trial was violated under the plain error doctrine. The presence of a juror whose husband, a judge, had previously sentenced defendant Bracey to prison created an appearance of partiality that tainted the proceedings. The dissent further argues that defense counsel's failure to challenge this juror and subsequent decision to reveal the prior sentencing to the jury constituted ineffective assistance of counsel under the Strickland standard.
Dissenting - Justice Simon
This dissent joins the primary dissent regarding the juror and ineffective counsel issues. It also dissents on the separate ground that the Illinois death penalty statute is unconstitutional, and therefore the death sentences should be vacated.
Analysis:
This decision solidifies the application of the 'reasonable expectation of privacy' test from Katz v. United States to garbage left in common areas of multi-unit dwellings. It distinguishes such spaces from the constitutionally protected curtilage of a single-family home, thereby expanding the ability of law enforcement to conduct warrantless searches of trash in these semi-public settings. The case provides a clear precedent that placing items in an area accessible to the public effectively abandons one's privacy interest in them for Fourth Amendment purposes. This ruling has a significant impact on investigative practices in urban and multi-tenant environments.
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