Draper v. United States

Petitioner

James Draper

Respondent

United States

Petitioner's Claim

That the search of petitioner and seizure of heroin following his warrantless arrest by a federal narcotics agent violated the Fourth Amendment because the arrest was based solely on information from a paid informant.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioner

Osmond K. Fraenkel

Chief Lawyer for Respondent

Leonard B. Sand

Justices for the Court

Hugo Lafayette Black, William J. Brennan, Jr., Tom C. Clark, John Marshall Harlan II, Potter Stewart, Charles Evans Whittaker (writing for the Court)

Justices Dissenting

William O. Douglas (Felix Frankfurter and Earl Warren did not participate)

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

26 January 1959

Decision

Upheld the lower courts' ruling that petitioner's arrest and the subsequent search of petitioner which turned up heroin were lawful, and affirmed his conviction.

Sources

Bureau of Justice Statistics Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics-1996. Washington, DC: U.S. Government, 1997.

Further Readings

• Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. http://www.cjlf.org.
• Criminal Law Links-Reference Desk. http://dpa.state.ky.us/~rwheeler/libarch.htm.
• National Archive of Criminal Justice Data. http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/nacjd.
• National Archives and Records Administration. http://www.nara.gov.
• National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. http://www.criminaljustice.org.