Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville

(Redirected from Papachristou v. Jacksonville )

Papachristou v. Jacksonville, 405 U.S. 156 (1972), was a United States Supreme Court case resulting in a Jacksonville vagrancy ordinance being declared unconstitutionally vague . The case was argued on December 8, 1971, and decided on February 24, 1972. The respondent was the city of Jacksonville, Florida .

Facts

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Papachristou_v._City_of_Jacksonville&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: Facts")

Eight defendants were involved in this case. Each had been convicted of violating a Jacksonville, Florida, vagrancy ordinance that criminalized vagrancy, loitering, and related activity.

Vagrancy ordinance

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Papachristou_v._City_of_Jacksonville&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: Vagrancy ordinance")

Jacksonville's ordinance at the time of the defendants' arrests and conviction was the following:

Rogues and vagabonds, or dissolute persons who go about begging, common gamblers, persons who use juggling or unlawful games or plays, common drunkards, common night walkers, thieves, pilferers or pickpockets, traders in stolen property, lewd, wanton and lascivious persons, keepers of gambling places, common railers and brawlers, persons wandering or strolling around from place to place without any lawful purpose or object, habitual loafers, disorderly persons, persons neglecting all lawful business and habitually spending their time by frequenting houses of ill fame, gaming houses, or places where alcoholic beverages are sold or served, persons able to work but habitually living upon the earnings of their wives or minor children shall be deemed vagrants and, upon conviction in the Municipal Court shall be punished as provided for Class D offenses.

Class D offenses at the time of these arrests and convictions were punishable by 90 days' imprisonment, a $500 fine, or both.

Defendants' conduct

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Papachristou_v._City_of_Jacksonville&action=edit&section=3 "Edit section: Defendants' conduct")

Four of the eight defendants—Margaret Papachristou, Betty Calloway, Eugene Eddie Melton, and Leonard Johnson—were charged with "prowling by auto" under the Jacksonville vagrancy ordinance. Papachristou and Calloway were white women. Melton and Johnson were black men. At the time of their early Sunday morning arrest, they were driving in Calloway's car in Jacksonville. The arresting officers denied that the racial makeup of the car's passengers was a factor in the arrest. Rather, the officers claimed that they arrested the defendants because they had stopped near a used-car lot that had been broken into several times. The morning they were arrested, however, there had been no evidence of breaking and entering. Shortly after the defendants' arrest, someone from the police department had called Papachristou's parents and told them she had "been out with a negro."

A fifth defendant, Jimmy Lee Smith, was charged with being a "vagabond" under the vagrancy ordinance. He and a companion had been waiting for a friend to lend them a car when he was arrested. It was before 10 a.m. on a weekday. It was a cold morning, so Smith and his companion had walked into a dry cleaning store to wait. The dry cleaning store owners asked Smith and his companion to leave, and they did. Smith and his companion then walked back and forth a few times over a two-block stretch looking for their friend.

The dry cleaning store owners became suspicious and contacted the police, who searched the two men. The police found no weapon, but proceeded to arrest them. The arresting officers said they arrested Smith and his companion because they didn't have identification and because they didn't believe their story that they were waiting for a friend. Smith was also a "part-time organizer for a Negro political group" at the time he was arrested.

Henry Edward Heath was arrested for being a "common thief" under the ordinance. He had driven up to his girlfriend's home, where police officers were already in the process of arresting another man. When he started to back out of the driveway, the officers told him to stop and get out of his car. He did so, and officers searched him and his car. The officers found nothing but arrested him, charging him with being a "common thief" because that was allegedly his reputation. Heath's co-defendant, who was not one of the eight defendants in the Papachristou case, had been charged with loitering for standing in the driveway; the officers conceded that he was only doing so at their command.

Thomas Owen Campbell was also charged with being a "common thief." He was arrested as he was going home early one morning. Officers claimed to have stopped him because he was driving quickly, but they did not charge him with speeding.

Hugh Brown was charged with "disorderly loitering on street" and "disorderly conduct -- resisting arrest with violence." He was arrested when a police officer saw him leave a hotel. The officer summoned Brown to his police cruiser and began to search him. A police witness later testified he had a reputation for being a "thief, narcotics pusher, and generally opprobrious character." As the officer was searching Brown, he touched a pocket where Brown was storing heroin, and Brown began to resist. Brown was charged under the Jacksonville vagrancy ordinance; he was also charged with a narcotics violation, but that was nolled .

Procedural history

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Papachristou_v._City_of_Jacksonville&action=edit&section=4 "Edit section: Procedural history")

Jacksonville Municipal Court convictions

(https://en.wi

…

Papachristou v. Jacksonville

Primary source

Background