Why is the terry v ohio case important
Why Stop-and-Frisk is Legal | Terry v. Ohio
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mr beat presents supreme court briefs
cleveland ohio october 31st 1963.
that's right halloween martin mcfadden a
cleveland detective with 39 years of
experience
gets suspicious when he sees two men
pacing back and forth in front of a
jewelry store the two men
john terry and richard chilton would go
back and forth according to various
reports between 12
and 24 times they took turns starting a
block or two away and then would
routinely walk up to the jewelry store
window to peek in
and return back to chat about it soon a
third man named
carl katz approached terry and chilton
and talked with them
and then left mcfadden had seen enough
after the three men rejoined in front of
zuckers
a clothing store mcfadden decided to
approach them mcfadden was in street
clothes but identified himself as a
police officer
and asked them for their names after the
men quote
mumbled something in response mcfadden
frisked them
frisk by the way means patting someone
down to search for hidden weapons
or illegal stuff well after mcfadden
frisked
the men he found a 38 caliber automatic
pistol in terry's overcoat pocket and a
38 caliber revolver
in chilton's pocket later mcfadden would
argue he only did a pat down
before reaching into their pockets for
the guns although
he never reached into the pockets of
cats mcfadden arrested all three men but
since cats didn't have a weapon on him
the police released him and only charged
terry and chilton with carrying
concealed weapons
at the trial terry and chilton's lawyer
argued the evidence of the guns couldn't
be used in court since mcfadden's risk
of them went against the fourth
amendment
it was an illegal search and seizure you
see
there was this law called the
exclusionary rule the exclusionary rule
said you couldn't use evidence if the
police got it illegally
the cuyahoga county common pleas court
disagreed finding terry and chilton
guilty they ruled that due to both the
suspicious nature of their behavior
and mcfadden's concern for his own
safety the quote
stop and frisk as it's now commonly
known was
reasonable terry appealed to the ohio
district court of appeals which agreed
with a lower court
so he appealed again this time to the
supreme court of ohio
but it dismissed the appeal saying that
it involved quote
no constitutional question by the time
terry had tried to appeal his case to
the united states supreme court
it was 1967 a time when more
and more americans were losing their
trust in the police
especially african americans oh by the
way
here is what terry looked like here is
what chilton looked like
here is what cats look like
the supreme court did hear arguments on
december 12 1967 the big question
was the stop and frisk of terry and the
other men
a violation of the fourth amendment the
court said
no on june 10th 1968 it announced it had
sided with ohio
it was eight to one they said that the
police could stop and frisk
suspects as long as there was a quote
reasonable suspicion that the suspect
was actually about to commit a crime so
the search and seizure was reasonable in
terry in the other's case
since it did seem like they were gonna
rob that jewelry store
after all mcfadden had 39 years of
police experience so he would know
better than about
anyone what an armed robbery was about
to look like
since this case remains so controversial
today i should bring up the one
dissenting opinion by
justice douglas he strongly disagreed
with the decision
saying quote we hold today that the
police have greater authority to make a
quote seizure and conduct a quote search
than a
judge has to authorize such action we
have said precisely the opposite
over and over again adding quote to give
the police greater power than a
magistrate is to take a long step down
the totalitarian path
perhaps such a step is desirable to cope
with modern forms of lawlessness but if
it is taken it should be the deliberate
choice of the people through a
constitutional amendment
unquote terry v ohio expanded police
authority and crime investigations but
like i said it's very controversial
today as the decision has unintended
consequences
today police departments across the
country regularly practice
stop and frisk aka terry stops but many
have called for a
ban on them arguing that terry stops
have in fact
not contributed to a decline in the
crime rate but instead made
systemic racism worse how many times
have you been stopped and fresh
seven times seven times yes and you're
how old 17.
new york city probably has the most
visible and notorious
stop and frisk program but recently the
new york city police department
reassigned its 600 plainclothes
officers in response to systemic racism
after their recent nationwide protests
after the killing of george floyd
still last year 59 of the suspects
stopped and frisked by new york city
police were
african-american despite the fact that
african-americans make up
24 of the new york city population
i'll see you for the next supreme court
case jury
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graham v connor and speaking of this
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