United States v. Shaw, No. 14-2881 (7th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseShaw, a convicted bank robber in custody at the Pekin Correctional Institution appealed his conviction for possession of heroin while in a federal prison, 18 U.S.C. 1791. A search of Shaw’s cell was planned after two anonymous calls through an inmates’ hotline. Before the search, officers found marijuana in Shaw’s clothing. Shaw then reached into the front pocket of his sweatpants, and pulled out four brown balls wrapped in plastic. Testing revealed that the balls contained heroin at a purity level of less than one percent. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence and upholding denial of a motion to suppress. As a prisoner, Shaw has highly curtailed Fourth Amendment protection. The court held that Shaw was not entitled to know the identities of the anonymous tipsters; rejected challenges to the testing of the heroin balls; and upheld the 60-month, above-guidelines sentence.
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