136
Opinion of Stevens, J.
all his goods even though he were acquitted . . . . In modern times more correct views have prevailed, and the evasion of or flight from justice seems now nearly reduced to its true place in the administration of the criminal law, namely, that of a circumstance—a fact which it is always of importance to take into consideration, and combined with others may afford strong evidence of guilt, but which, like any other piece of presumptive evidence, it is equally absurd and dangerous to invest with infallibility." Hickory v. United States, 160 U. S. 408, 419-420 (1896) (internal quotation marks omitted).
"Unprovoked flight," in short, describes a category of activity too broad and varied to permit a per se reasonable inference regarding the motivation for the activity. While the innocent explanations surely do not establish that the Fourth Amendment is always violated whenever someone is stopped solely on the basis of an unprovoked flight, neither do the suspicious motivations establish that the Fourth Amendment is never violated when a Terry stop is predicated on that fact alone. For these reasons, the Court is surely correct in refusing to embrace either per se rule advocated by the parties. The totality of the circumstances, as always, must dictate the result.13
13 Illinois' reliance on the common law as a conclusive answer to the issue at hand is mistaken. The sources from which it gleans guidance focus either on flight following an accusation of criminal activity, see 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *387 ("For flight . . . on an accusation of treason, felony, or even petit larceny . . . is an offence carrying with it a strong presumption of guilt" (emphasis added in part)), or are less dogmatic than Illinois contends, compare Brief for Petitioner 15 ("[A] person's flight was considered . . . conclusive proof of guilt") with A. Burrill, Circumstantial Evidence 472 (1856) ("So impressed was the old common law with considerations of this kind, that it laid down the rule, which passed into a maxim,—that flight from justice was equivalent to confession of guilt . . . . But this maxim . . . was undoubtedly expressed in too general and sweeping terms").
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