Supreme Court of the United States, 1965

James v. Louisiana

Supreme Court of the United States · Decided October 25, 1965 · Per Curiam

382 U.S. 36; 86 S. Ct. 151; 15 L. Ed. 2d 30; 1965 U.S. LEXIS 450 (United States Reports)

Counsel

G. Wray Gill, Sr., for petitioner., Jack P. F. Gremillion, Attorney General of Louisiana, M. E. Culligan, Assistant Attorney General, and Jim Garrison for respondent.

Cases that cite this one

77 later published cases cite this decision. The 25 that cite it most often are listed here.

Caughlin v. Superior Court (Cal. 1971)
United States v. Anne Francolino (2d Cir. 1966)
People v. Medina (Cal. 1972)
Sims v. Collection Division of the Utah State Tax Commission (Utah 1992)
United States v. George Alvin Bruton (8th Cir. 1981)
People v. Crawl (Mich. 1977)
Dillon v. Superior Court (Cal. 1972)
State v. Cooley (La. 1972)
United States v. Kenneth Alvin Robbins (6th Cir. 1970)
State v. Comeaux (La. 1968)
United States v. Garcia-Sarquiz (District Court, E.D. New York 1968)
John Thomas Weaver v. Ward Lane, Warden of the Indiana State Prison (7th Cir. 1967)
People v. Henry (Cal. 1967)
Russell v. State (Tex. App. 1983)
United States v. Smollar (District Court, S.D. New York 1972)
Williams v. United States (Supreme Court of the United States 1971)
Chimel v. California (Supreme Court of the United States 1969)
Shipley v. California (Supreme Court of the United States 1969)
People v. Williams (Mich. Ct. App. 1969)
James D. Gullett v. United States of America, Delmar R. Warner v. United States (8th Cir. 1967)
People v. Rodriguez (Cal. Ct. App. 1965)
State v. Fernon (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 2000)
State v. Cathey (La. Ct. App. 1986)
People v. Watkins (Ill. App. Ct. 1981)
State v. Alexander (R.I. 1981)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion

Per Curiam.

The petitioner was convicted by a Louisiana jury of possession of narcotics and was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years. The Supreme Court of Louisiana set aside the conviction on the ground that it was based upon evidence seized without a warrant during an illegal search. 246 La. 1033, 169 So. 2d 89. Upon rehearing, however, that court affirmed the conviction by a divided vote. 246 La. 1053, 169 So. 2d 97. We grant the motion to proceed in forma pauperis and the petition for certiorari and reverse the judgment.

Police officers arrested the petitioner near the intersection of Camp Street and Jackson Avenue in the City of New Orleans, after he had alighted from an automobile driven by another man. The officers then drove the petitioner to his home, more than two blocks away. *37 They broke open the door and for several hours conducted an intensive search which finally yielded the narcotics equipment and single morphine tablet that constituted the basis of the petitioner’s subsequent conviction.

The Supreme Court of Louisiana found that the officers had probable cause to arrest the petitioner at the time they apprehended him, and the validity of his arrest is not here in issue. In the circumstances of this case, however, the subsequent search of the petitioner’s home cannot be regarded as incident to his arrest on a street corner more than two blocks away. A search “can be incident to an arrest only if it is substantially contemporaneous with the arrest and is confined to the immediate vicinity of the arrest.” Stoner v. California, 376 U. S. 483, 486. See also Preston v. United States, 376 U. S. 364.

Under the doctrine of Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643, see also Ker v. California, 374 U. S. 23, it was constitutional error to admit the fruits of this illegal search into evidence at the petitioner’s trial. Accordingly, the petition for certiorari is granted, the judgment is reversed, and the case is remanded to the Supreme Court of Louisiana for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.