Illinois v. Perkins facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Illinois v. Perkins |
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| Argued February 20, 1990 Decided June 4, 1990 |
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| Full case name | Illinois v. Perkins |
| Docket no. | 88-1972 |
| Citations | 496 U.S. 292 (more) |
| Argument | Oral argument |
| Case history | |
| Prior | motion to suppress granted April 1987, affirmed, People v. Perkins, 531 NE 2d 141 (1988), cert. granted, 493 U. S. 808 (1989) |
| Subsequent | motion to suppress granted on other grounds, 207 Ill.App.3d 1124, affirmed, People v. Perkins, 618 NE 2d 1275 (1993), rehearing denied September 1993, ibid. |
| Holding | |
| Statements made by an incarcerated suspect to an undercover police agent are admissible as evidence, notwithstanding that the suspect was not given a Miranda warning, when the suspect did not know they were speaking to the police. | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Kennedy, joined by Rehnquist, White, Blackmun, Stevens, O'Connor, Scalia |
| Concurrence | Brennan |
| Dissent | Marshall |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. V, Miranda v. Arizona | |
Illinois v. Perkins was a big decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1990. This case was about whether police officers, when working undercover, need to give a special warning called a Miranda warning to a suspect. The Court decided that undercover police agents do not need to give Miranda warnings if the suspect does not know they are talking to the police.
Miranda warnings are usually given when police question someone who is in custody. These warnings remind people of their right to stay silent and their right to have a lawyer. This helps protect rights under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. However, the Court said that if a person doesn't know they are talking to an officer, they don't feel pressured like they would in a normal police questioning.
How the Case Started
This case began when police in Illinois were investigating a serious crime. They got a tip from an inmate named Donald Charlton. Charlton was in jail with a man named Lloyd Perkins at the Graham Correctional Center. Charlton told the police that he had heard Perkins talk about being involved in a crime. The details Charlton shared seemed believable. They connected Perkins to a crime that happened in 1984 in a town near East St. Louis, Illinois.
Undercover Operation
By the time police got this tip, Perkins was no longer at Graham Correctional Center. They found him in a jail in Montgomery County, Illinois. He was there for a different reason. On March 31, the police decided to try something different. They placed Donald Charlton and an undercover police agent, John Parisi, into the jail with Perkins. Both Charlton and Parisi pretended they had escaped from a work release program.
They started talking to Perkins about escaping from jail. Then, they slowly changed the conversation to ask if Perkins had ever committed a serious crime. Perkins then began to talk about a crime he had committed in East St. Louis. When they asked for more information, he gave many details that showed his involvement. Since Parisi was working undercover, he did not tell Perkins he was a police officer. He also did not give Perkins a Miranda warning.
