TERRY V. OHIO CASE

Supreme Court decision of Terry v. Ohio Case

Supreme Court decision of Terry v. Ohio

Introduction

A case against The State of Ohio was filed by a man named John W. Terry. The state of Ohio responded to the case and it was decided by the “Warren Court”, in 1968. The case falls in the category of con law, fourth amendment, searches and seizures, criminal and it highlights issues such as criminal procedures and seizures. The case originally arose when two people were found to possess concealed weapons by a police officer. The petitioner in this case filed a motion to suppress the evidence by filing a case that he didn't hurt anyone or didn't broke any law on the street. He said that he has not broken any law therefore there was no case against him and the police did not have any case against him. When the case started, the court heard the case from both sides and in the end the court decided that there was no case and the motion was over ruled, and the court directed that the case trial should continue. The case was case heard by a bench, because in this case the jury had been waived.

Discussion and Analyses

On October 31, 1963, a police officer named McFadden was on his usual duty (i.e. patrolling) in Cleveland, Ohio. He saw two men (petitioner and Chilton) behaving in a suspicious manner. He watched them pacing back and forth in front of a store window and staring inside the store. After completion of each route they discussed something quickly and then again continued their identical route. After a while third man (Katz) approached them and they repeated the same pattern of walk and discussed something swiftly and then the third man headed towards a couple of blocks away in front of the store, the other two men followed him. Detective McFadden then followed them and saw three of them discussing something, he showed them his card and identified himself as a police officer and asked their names. One man mumbled something, the police officer asked him to turn around and frisked him; the officer felt a pistol butt inside his overcoat he immediately ordered the three men into the store. He took out a revolver from first man's pocket and ordered them to face the wall, and then he patted down the other two men and ...