The criminal justice system has many steps and procedures, and also many stages. These stages break up the process in order to make sure nothing is missed before the final decision has been reached. It starts with getting arrested, then the bail must be determined, then the pleas entered, hearings scheduled, and motions heard. “The police, the defense lawyers, the suspects, the judges, the witnesses, the victims, and whoever else is involved in the drama of crime and punishment must follow the rules of criminal procedure” (Wright, 2013). Let’s start from the beginning.
First there is an Investigation by law enforcement, and the purpose of a criminal investigation is to gather evidence to identify a suspect to support the arrest. The officer
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In the court 's language, “ We merely hold today that where a police officer observes unusual conduct which leads him reasonably to conclude in light of his experience that criminal activity may be afoot and that the persons with whom he is dealing may be armed and presently dangerous, where in the course of investigating this behavior he identifies himself as a policeman and makes reasonable inquiries, and where nothing in the initial stages of the encounter serves to dispel his reasonable fear for his own or others ' safety, he is entitled for the protection of himself and others in the area to conduct a carefully limited search of the outer clothing of such persons in an attempt to discover weapons which might be used to assault him. Such a search is a reasonable search under the Fourth Amendment, and any weapons seized may properly be introduced in evidence against the person from whom they were taken”. (Terry v. Ohio, 1968) (Wright, 2013).
An example of reasonable suspicion would be if an officer is in a neighborhood and he has been notified of drug dealers in the area and sees a man walking up to cars and making handshakes which could indicate a drug exchange and then the officer walks up and confronts the man on reasonable suspicion, but if the officer actually seen the man handling the drugs then his would be considered probable cause. When there is no reasonable suspicion or probably cause in a criminal case then the suspect is acquitted of all the allegations against them and the case will be dismissed due to the lack of