Supreme Court of Pennsylvania· 1/20/2000

Commonwealth v. Stevenson

Citations

744 A.2d 1261
560 Pa. 345
2000 Pa. LEXIS 167

How courts have described this case

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

concluding that incriminating nature of pill bottle, cigar, and cardboard packages was not immediately apparent
explaining that “a protective search must be strictly ‘limited to that which is necessary for the discovery of weapons’”
noting, in consolidated appeal, police initially stopped appellants for motor vehicle code violations
reasonable suspicion determined by totality of circumstances when officer observed unusual conduct which leads him to reasonably conclude criminal activity may be afoot
officer felt small, hard object wrapped in plastic and determined it was crack cocaine only after conducting further search — squeezing and manipulating the object — and its seizure was not justified by the plain feel doctrine
“[I]f the officer has a reasonable suspicion, based on specific and -8- J-S19005-19 articulable facts, that the detained individual may be armed and dangerous, the officer may then conduct a frisk of the individual’s outer garments for weapons.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Flaherty, Zappala, Cappy, Castille, Nigro, Newman, Saylor

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

25 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Cites

18 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

Other cases with this name

Sourced from CourtListener / Free Law Project (CC0).

This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.