Case Study: Happy Howard V. US

Words: 855
Pages: 4

Issue:

1) According to the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, were Happy Howard’s rights violated when he was stopped and frisked based solely on information provided by an anonymous phone call and the police had no other evidence of Happy participating in any suspicious or criminal activity?
2) Will Happy Howard be able to suppress the evidence of a firearm, which was found during the search?

Facts:

Happy Howard was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm after an anonymous caller called 911 and reported someone with a weapon and gave a description of Happy. Based on the description from the anonymous call and no other visible evidence of criminal activity, the officer stopped and frisked Happy, and while doing so found a gun.

Analysis:
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In Baptiste v. State, 995 So. 2d 285 (Fla. 2008), a case very similar to our client’s case, the court held that an anonymous call could not provide reasonable suspicion for a stop-and-frisk if the police officer had no other evidence of illegal activity. The Baptiste court cited the landmark case Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968), where the Supreme Court ultimately held that an officer must have reasonable suspicion to perform a legal investigatory stop, called a Terry stop. Another case cited by the Baptiste court was Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266 (2000), where the U.S. Supreme court ruled that although the anonymous caller had provided information on J.L. such as where he was and what he was wearing, the information from the informant could not provide reasonable