In Terry v. Ohio (1968) the Supreme Court ruled that police can stop and frisk a suspect they have reasonable suspicion was involved in a crime and it does not violate the 4th Amendment. On Halloween 1963, Cleveland PD detective Martin McFadden was conducting a plainclothes patrol in the downtown of the Ohio city. McFadden, 62, was a veteran cop with many decades of service; he had joined the CPD all the way back in 1924, was promoted to detective in 1928, and had been on the same beat hunting down shoplifters and pickpockets since 1933. On this fall afternoon, he observed John Terry and Richard Chilton on Huron Road and Euclid Avenue. Terry peered into a shop window, walked a few paces down the street, came back, and peered in the window again. He did this a couple of times after which Chilton did the same. A third man joined them and the three headed towards the store.
McFadden, from his decades on the force, believed he knew exactly what was going on and that the men were casing the store prior to robbing it. He confronted them, told them he was a cop, and asked who they were. The men gave evasive answers, so he grabbed Terry, turned him around to face the others, and patted him down. He felt a gun in Terry's coat, but was unable to pull it out, so he ordered the men inside the store. McFadden then took Terry's coat off, found a .38 revolver, and ordered all three men to put their hands up and face the wall. He patted down Chilton and the third man, John Katz. Chilton had a handgun in his coat too, but Katz was unarmed. McFadden confiscated Chilton's gun, asked the store owner to call police, and took all three men downtown where the first two were charged with carrying a concealed weapon.The defense at their trial wanted to suppress the guns, but the prosecution argued that they'd been seized incident to a lawful arrest. The trial judge rejected this idea, arguing that McFadden had no probable cause to arrest the suspects until patting them down and discovering their weapons. However, the judge did also reject the defense's motion on the grounds that McFadden had a legitimate reason to pat them down out of suspicion that they were armed. The pat-down was necessary lest the officer be shot, and a loaded gun found during a pat-down is admissible evidence. Chilton and Terry waived their right to a jury trial and plead innocent. The judge found them guilty. The state court of appeals upheld their conviction and the state supreme court rejected their appeal for lack of any constitutional question.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, Terry being the petitioner as Chilton had since died, and ruled 8-1 that it was allowable for a police officer to pat down a suspect if he has reasonable suspicion that he has a weapon and is, did, or could commit a crime. Chief Justice Warren wrote the majority opinion. He argued that seizure of a weapon during a pat down was not unreasonable under the 4th Amendment. It was probable that some police actions did violate the 4th, but that did not render it responsive to the exclusionary rule. Warren added that it was not disputed that police sometimes engaged in undue harrassment of minority groups, especially African-Americans, and this would not be prevented by excluding evidence from a trial. Yet a rigid application of the exclusionary rule may result in many unnecessary injuries and make it difficult for police to perform their duties.
Merely walking down a street corner and peering into a store window would not in of itself be cause for suspicion, but the actions of Terry, Chilton, and Katz were certainly unusual and it was within reason for an experienced burglary detective to suppose they were up to no good, especially the reactions and body language of the three when confronted by McFadden and their refusal to give their names. FBI statistics showed that 57 police officers in the United States were killed in the line of duty during 1966 and there were also 23,851 assaults on officers with 9,113 resulting in an injury to the officer. Of the 57 officer fatalities in 1966, all but two died of gunshot wounds. A total of 335 officers were killed since 1960.Justice Douglas dissented and argued that it was not disputable that the search had violated the 4th Amendment. He thought McFadden had no reason to suppose they had any ill intent and the men were not arrested or charged with burglary or robbery, but merely for concealed weapons.
>>18523742>>18523744so were they black or not?
>>18523747>Warren added that it was not disputed that police sometimes engaged in undue harrassment of minority groups, especially African-Americans, andBeing Earl Warren, of course he had to go there. Of course.
>>18523742pretty sure nowadays it's standard for cops to retire at 55. guess it was different back then.
