DEFENDANT ABANDONS PROPERTY BY DISCLAIMING OWNERSHIP FOR 4TH AMENDMENT

A defendant can abandon property by verbally disclaiming ownership of it for purposes of the fourth amendment.

United States v. Morgan, _ F.3d _ (11th Cir. 2004):

“[A]n individual’s Fourth Amendment rights are not infringed—or even implicated—by a search of a thing or place in which he has no reasonable expectation of privacy.” Ross, 963 F.3d at 1062. And importantly here, a person loses his Fourth Amendment interest in an item of property if he abandons it. See United States v. McKennon, 814 F.2d 1539, 1545–46 (11th Cir. 1987). “We take an objective, common-sense approach to assessing abandonment, focusing on whether the prior possessor voluntarily discarded, left behind, or otherwise relinquished his interest in the property in question in light of his statements, acts, and other facts.” United States v. Green, 981 F.3d 945, 956 (11th Cir. 2020) (citation modified).

We have long held that one can abandon property by verbally disclaiming ownership of it. See, e.g., United States v. Hastamorir, 881 F.2d 1551, 1560 (11th Cir. 1989) (affirming the district court’s abandonment finding where the defendant had repeatedly denied any knowledge of a car where drugs were discovered, even though his disclaimers came after the police had trained their guns on him); United States v. Colbert, 474 F.2d 174, 177 (5th Cir. 1973) (en banc) (finding that the defendants had abandoned their briefcases when, in response to police questions, “they both disclaimed any interest in the briefcases and began to walk away from them”).