Wainwright v. City of New Orleans

About midnight on October 12, 1964, petitioner, a student at Tulane University Law School, left his French Quarter apartment in New Orleans to get something to eat. Approximately four blocks from his apartment, two officers of the New Orleans Police Department who had observed petitioner as they cruised by in their car stopped him because in their opinion he fitted the description of a man suspected of murder. That suspect had tattooed on his left forearm the words “born to raise hell.” Petitioner told the officers he had identification at home but not on his person. He gave them his name and…