PAPACHRISTOU V. CITY OF JACKSONVILLE 405 U.S. 156 (1972) CASE BRIEF

PAPACHRISTOU V. CITY OF JACKSONVILLE

405 U.S. 156 (1972)

NATURE OF THE CASE: This was a case about a conviction for vagrancy. This case involves eight defendants who were convicted in a Florida municipal court of violating a Jacksonville, Florida, vagrancy ordinance.

FACTS: At issue are five consolidated cases. Margaret Papachristou, Betty Calloway, Eugene Eddie Melton, and Leonard Johnson were all arrested early on a Sunday morning, and charged with vagrancy - 'prowling by auto.' Jimmy Lee Smith and Milton Henry were charged with vagrancy - 'vagabonds.' Henry Edward Heath and a codefendant were arrested for vagrancy - 'loitering' and 'common thief.' Thomas Owen Campbell was charged with vagrancy - 'common thief.' Hugh Brown was charged with vagrancy - 'disorderly loitering on street' and 'disorderly conduct - resisting arrest with violence.' Papachristou and Calloway are white females. Melton and Johnson are black males. Papachristou was enrolled in a job-training program sponsored by the State Employment Service at Florida Junior College in Jacksonville. Calloway was a typing and shorthand teacher at a state mental institution located near Jacksonville. She was the owner of the automobile in which the four defendants were arrested. Melton was a Vietnam war veteran who had been released from the Navy after nine months in a veterans' hospital. On the date of his arrest he was a part-time computer helper while attending college as a full-time student in Jacksonville. Johnson was a tow-motor operator in a grocery chain warehouse and was a lifelong resident of Jacksonville. All four of them were riding in Calloway's car on the main thoroughfare in Jacksonville. They had eaten and were on their way to a nightclub. The arresting officers denied that the racial mixture in the car played any part in the decision to make the arrest. The arrest, they said, was made because the defendants had stopped near a used-car lot which had been broken into several times. There was, however, no evidence of any breaking and entering on the night in question. They were charged with 'prowling by auto' none had been previously arrested except Papachristou who had once been convicted of a municipal offense. Jimmy Lee Smith and Milton Henry (who is not a petitioner) were arrested between 9 and 10 a. m. on a weekday in downtown Jacksonville, while waiting for a friend who was to lend them a car so they could apply for a job at a produce company. Smith was a part-time produce worker and part-time organizer for a Negro political group. He had a common-law wife and three children supported by him and his wife. He had been arrested several times but convicted only once. Smith's companion, Henry, was an 18-year-old high school student with no previous record of arrest. Smith had no jacket, so they went briefly into a dry cleaning shop to wait, but left when requested to do so. They thereafter walked back and forth two or three times over a two-block stretch looking for their friend. The store owners, who apparently were wary of Smith and his companion, summoned two police officers who searched the men and found neither had a weapon. But they were arrested because the officers said they had no identification and because the officers did not believe their story. Heath and a codefendant were arrested for 'loitering' and for 'common thief.' Both were residents of Jacksonville, Heath having lived there all his life and being employed at an automobile body shop. Heath had previously been arrested but his codefendant had no arrest record. Heath and his companion were arrested when they drove up to a residence shared by Heath's girlfriend and some other girls. Some police officers were already there in the process of arresting another man. When Heath and his companion started backing out of the driveway, the officers signaled to them to stop and asked them to get out of the car, which they did. Thereupon they and the automobile were searched. No contraband or incriminating evidence was found, but they were both arrested, Heath being charged with being a 'common thief' because he was reputed to be a thief. The codefendant was charged with 'loitering' because he was standing in the driveway, an act which the officers admitted was done only at their command. Campbell was arrested as he reached his home very early one morning and was charged with 'common thief.' He was stopped by officers because he was traveling at a high rate of speed, yet no speeding charge was placed against him. Brown was arrested when he was observed leaving a downtown Jacksonville hotel by a police officer seated in a cruiser. The police testified he was reputed to be a thief, narcotics pusher, and generally opprobrious character. The officer called Brown over to the car, intending at that time to arrest him unless he had a good explanation for being on the street. Brown walked over to the police cruiser, as commanded, and the officer began to search him, apparently preparatory to placing him in the car. In the process of the search he came on two small packets which were later found to contain heroin. When the officer touched the pocket where the packets were, Brown began to resist. He was charged with 'disorderly loitering on street' and 'disorderly conduct - resisting arrest with violence.' Ds challenged the vagrancy ordinance because it was unconstitutionally vague.

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LEGAL ANALYSIS:

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