James v. Illinois

James v. Illinois
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 3, 1989 Decided January 10, 1990
Full case name	James v. Illinois
Citations	493 U.S. 307 (more) 110 S. Ct. 648; 107 L. Ed. 2d 676; 1990 U.S. LEXIS 335; 58 U.S.L.W. 4115
Prior history	Cert. to the Supreme Court of Illinois
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices William J. Brennan, Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy
Case opinions
Majority	Brennan, joined by White, Marshall, Blackmun, Stevens
Concurrence	Stevens
Dissent	Kennedy, joined by Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia

James v. Illinois, 493 U.S. 307 (1990), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declined to extend the allowance of statements obtained in violation of Miranda v. Arizona to impeach inconsistent statements made by a defendant at trial to inconsistent statements made by a third party.

Background

On August 30, 1982 a group of eight boys was confronted by another group of boys who demanded money. The group of eight refused and was fired upon, resulting in the death of one boy and injury to another. After police arrived on the scene the group of eight acted as witnesses by recounting their experience to the police. Darryl James was eventually brought into custody as a suspect. He was arrested in his mother's beauty salon. The police questioned him about his hair color to which he responded that although his hair was currently black and curly it had previously been reddish-brown and slicked back. After arriving at the police station James was again questioned and he then told police he changed his hair color to alter his appearance.

James was eventually indicted for murder and attempted murder. James attempted to suppress the statements he had previously made about his hair as being fruit of the poisonous tree in violation of the Fourth Amendment as lacking probable cause for his arrest. The trial court sustained the motion for suppression of the evidence.

Lower Courts

At trial the state's witnesses testified that the shooter had reddish hair that was slicked back. Each witness also identified James from weeks prior where they admitted he met the description. Although James objected to the testimony the trial court ruled the statements as voluntarily made. He was convicted.

Decision of the Supreme Court

In a 5 to 4 decision in favor of James, Justice Brennan wrote the decision for the Supreme Court. He noted that Jame's statements could not be used in a court of law and that the Illinois Supreme Court "wrongly expanded the practice" of illegally obtaining evidence to impeach a defendant's own testimony. Brennan noted that this expansion "would frustrate rather than further the purposes underlying the exclusionary rule."