Brown v. Illinois

Facts

As petitioner Richard Brown was climbing the last of the chairs leading to the rear entrance of his Chicago apartment on May 13, 1968, he appeared to glance at the window near the door. He saw pointed at him through the window, a revolver held by a stranger who was inside the apartment. Another man, also with a gun, came up behind Brown and repeated the statement that he was under arrest. The two men turned out to be Detectives William Nolan and William Lenz of the Chicago police force. Corpus was murdered one week earlier with a .38-caliber revolver in his Chicago apartment. Shortly thereafter, Detective Lenz obtained petitioner’s name from Corpus’ brother. The two detectives took petitioner to the police station. The officers warned Brown of his rights under Miranda. They then informed him that they knew of an incident that had occurred when Brown fired a shot from a revolver into the ceiling. Brown answered “Oh, you know about that.” Detectives then asked Brown whether he wanted to talk about the Corpus homicide. Petitioner answered that he did. Brown was again placed in the interrogation room. About 14 hours after his arrest, he was taken before a magistrate.