Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendant’s habeas petition challenging his aggravated criminal sexual assault conviction on grounds that: (1) blood draw that govt. had obtained from defendant from prior unrelated criminal proceeding was taken without probable cause; and (2) exclusionary rule precluded govt. from using said draw to link him to instant aggravated criminal sexual assault charge. Normally, habeas relief is unavailable to defendants alleging that state court improperly failed to suppress evidence collected in violation of 4th Amendment. Moreover, no 4th Amendment violation occurred in instant case where, under inevitable discovery doctrine, govt. would have been able to obtain blood draw from defendant, since Illinois statute (Ill. Rev. Stat., ch. 110A, par. 413(a)(viii)) required that defendant provide blood sample due to his prior conviction. Thus, defendant’s blood sample would have been available to link him to instant charged offense.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Criminal Court
Search and Seizure