Commonwealth v. Canning

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• concluding that the “the items retrieved from appellant’s pocket, two small plastic bags, one containing a white powder and one containing a green weed, do not feel like a gun, knife, or blackjack or anything else.”
• noting that “[o]nce probable cause is established, it does not dissipate simply because the suspect is not charged with the particular crime which led to the finding of probable cause.”
• holding search not justified under Terry where officer did not articulate specific facts to justify belief appellant might be armed or and did not confine search to items that may reasonably appear to be weapons
• agreeing with Terry that because the sole justification for the search is the protection of the officer, it must be confined in scope to a search for weapons
• agreeing with Terry that because the sole justification for the search is the protection of the officer, it must be confined in scope to a search for weapons
• assuming officer had probable cause to frisk suspect, search was not confined to items which could have reasonably appeared to be weapons where items retrieved from suspect's pocket included two small plastic bags containing white powder and marijuana leaves

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).