United States v. Osborne, No. 09-5276 (6th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this Case
Police responded to a call, about a shooting, spotted a car that matched the description, and stopped defendant, who briefly resisted and was handcuffed. After police patted him down and discovered no weapons, they entered his vehicle to retrieve identification from the console. A records check turned up an outstanding warrant. The police arrested defendant, searched him and the car, and found cocaine on his body and cocaine and firearms under the front seat. He was convicted under 21 U.S.C. 860 and 18 U.S.C. 924(c) and sentenced to 120 months. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, rejecting an argument that the district court should have instructed the jury that the proximity-to-a-school component of section 860 is an element of the offense. While proximity is an element of the offense, not simply a sentencing enhancement, the issue was entirely uncontested. After defendant was convicted, the Supreme Court held that search of a vehicle incident to arrest is unconstitutional unless the arrestee has access to the passenger compartment, but the police followed the rule in place at the time of the search, so evidence from the search was properly admitted.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.