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7.2: Wong Sun v. United States

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    16241

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    PETITIONER                                                                                 RESPONDENT

    Wong Sun and James Wah Toy                                                    United States

    LOCATION

    James Wah Toy’s Laundry

    DOCKET NO.                                                                                  DECIDED BY

    36                                                                                              Warren Court

    LOWER COURT

    United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

    CITATION

    371 US 471 (1963)

    ARGUED

    Mar 28, 1962 / Apr 01, 1962

    REARGUED

    Oct 8, 1962

    DECIDED

    Jan 14, 1963

    GRANTED

    Oct 9, 1961

    ADVOCATES

    Edward Bennett Williams acting under appointment by the Court, for the petitioners

    Archibald Cox Solicitor General, Department of Justice, for the United States

    Facts of the case

    Police arrested Hom Way for possession of heroin. While under arrest, Way told police that a man named “Blackie Toy” once sold him an ounce of heroin at his laundry on Leavenworth St. Later that day, police found a laundry run by James Wah Toy. Nothing on the record identified Toy as “Blackie Toy”, but police arrested him anyway. Police then went to Toy’s house where they arrested Johnny Yee and found several tubes containing less than one ounce of heroin. Police also arrested Wong Sun. Police interrogated the men and wrote statements in English for them to sign. Both men refused, citing errors in the statements. At trial in U.S. District Court, Toy and Sun were convicted on federal narcotics charges. On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed.

    Question

    1. Were the petitioners' arrests lawful?
    2. Were the petitioners' unsigned statements admissible as evidence?

    Conclusion

    5–4 DECISION FOR WONG SUN MAJORITY OPINION BY WILLIAM J. BRENNAN, JR.

    FOR AGAINST

    Douglas

    Black

    Goldberg

    Warren

    Brennan

    White

    Clark

    Harlan

    Stewart

    Prejudicial error at trial may have considered each petitioner's statement as corroboration of the other petitioner's guilt No, No. In a 5-4 decision, Justice William J. Brennan wrote the majority opinion reversing the lower court and remanding for a new trial. The Supreme Court held that the police did not have probable cause to justify the arrests. With regard to Toy, the court should exclude all evidence found during the search because they are the “fruits” of an unlawful search. The unsigned statement was not corroborated, so it gave no basis for conviction. Sun’s unsigned confession and evidence against him were admissible. Justice Tom C. Clark wrote a dissent, stating that the arrests were lawful and there was no reason to grant Sun a new trial. Justices James M. Harlan, Potter Stewart, and Byron R. White joined in the dissent.

    Contributors and Attributions

    This page titled 7.2: Wong Sun v. United States is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Larry Alvarez via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.