THE CASE OF ZACKARY WALKING IN A HIGH CRIME NEIGHBORHOOD

FIRST QUESTION:

1. Which Supreme Court case we have studied in this Module applies to this scenario (Terry v. Ohio)? What is the Rule of Law from that case?

NEXT STEPS:

2. State the important facts of the scenario.

3. Then state what Constitutional issue is raised under the facts: What part of the 4th Amendment was violated andWhy?

4. Finally explain, based on the case law, why Zackary should NOT be arrested. Why was Zackary wrongly arrested?

THE SCENARIO:

Two police officers, while cruising at noon in a patrol car, observed two men walking away from one another in an alley in an area with a high incidence of drug trafficking. The police stopped and asked one of the men, Zackary, to identify himself and explain what he was doing.

The officer later explained that he stopped Zackary because the situation "looked suspicious and we had never seen that him in the neighborhood before."

Neither officer claimed to have seen any specific misconduct or suspicious behavior by Zackary, nor did they have any reason to believe that he was armed.

When Zackary refused to identify himself, he was arrested for violation of a Texas statute which makes it a criminal act for a person to refuse to give his name and address to an officer "who haslawfully stopped him and requested the information."

Prior to trial, Zackary's lawyers filed a motion with the trial court to drop the charges. They claimed that the charges were unconstitutional on the grounds that the statute violated the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Zackary's motion was denied and he was convicted and fined.

Zackary appealed his conviction to the US Supreme Court.