Kevin Braniard Davis, Appellant v. the State of Texas, Appellee

Summary

The Court reversed the Court of Appeals, holding that while the investigatory stop of Davis was justified, the officer exceeded the permissible scope of a Terry frisk by opening a matchbox and discovering cocaine, rendering the drug evidence inadmissible. The decision rests on the limits of protective searches for weapons and the requirement that such searches not be used to discover evidence of crime.