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N.D.Ill.: Guest standing under Olson does not extend to the backyard

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defense counsel was not ineffective for not moving to suppress evidence found in his grandmother’s backyard. While it was curtilage, the drugs were immediately apparent to the officer and seen from off the property. The critical issue, however, is that even if he had guest standing in the house, it does not apply to the backyard. Thomas v. United States, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112641 (N.D. Ill. October 22, 2010): Citing affidavits submitted by a cousin and by his grandmother, Thomas suggests that he was in fact an overnight guest at his grandmother's house, entitled to claim Fourth Amendment protections as recognized in Minnesota v. Olson, 495 U.S. 91, 96-97, 110 S. Ct. 1684, 1688 (1990). If Thomas was in fact an overnight guest, however, he would nevertheless have no reasonable expectation of privacy in the curtilage of the house...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on October 26, 2010 (boomark / email).