Jones v. United States

Mr. Justice Frankfurter delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a prosecution for violation of federal narcotics laws. In the first count of a two-count indictment petitioner was charged with having “purchased, sold, dispensed and distributed” narcotics in violation of 26 U. S. C. § 4704 (a), that is, not in or from the “original stamped package.” In the second count petitioner was charged under 21 U. S. C. § 174 with having “facilitated the concealment and sale of” the same narcotics, knowing them to have been imported illegally into the United States. Petitioner was found guilty on both counts and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment. The Court of Appeals, one judge dissenting, affirmed the conviction. 104 U. S. App. D. C. 345, 262 F. 2d 234. Since the case presented important questions in the administration of criminal justice, more particularly a defendant’s standing to challenge the legality of a search in the circumstances of this case, as well as the legality of the particular search should standing be established, we granted certiorari. 359 U. S. 988.

Both statutory provisions under which petitioner was prosecuted permit conviction upon proof of the defendant’s possession of narcotics, and in the case of 26 U. S. C. § 4704 (a) of the absence of the appropriate stamps. Possession was the basis of the Government’s case against petitioner. The evidence against him may be briefly summarized. He was arrested in an apartment in the District of Columbia by federal narcotics officers, who [*259] were executing a warrant to search for narcotics. Those officers found narcotics, without appropriate stamps, and narcotics paraphernalia in a bird’s nest in an awning just outside a window in the apartment. Another officer, stationed outside the building, had a short time before seen petitioner put his hand on the awning. Upon the discovery of the narcotics and the paraphernalia petitioner had admitted to the officers that some of these were his and that he was living in the apartment.