United States v. Jackson, No. 12-4559 (4th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his conviction for drug trafficking. Defendant argued that police officers violated his Fourth Amendment rights when they pulled two bags of trash from a trash can located behind his girlfriend's apartment where they found enough evidence to obtain a warrant to search the apartment. The court concluded that the district court did not err in finding as fact that at the time of the trash pull, the trash can was sitting on common property of the apartment complex, rather than next to the apartment's rear door; in this location, the trash can was situated and the trash pull was accomplished beyond the apartment's curtilage; in the circumstances of this case, defendant lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy in the trash can's contents. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's conclusion that the trash pull did not violate defendant's Fourth Amendment rights.
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