Preview

The Exclusionary Rule

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2371 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Exclusionary Rule
The Exclusionary Rule

Abstract
This paper will present the Exclusionary Rule and the original intentions for its enactment. It will discuss the importance of the rule and how it is a protection against an unlawful search and seizure and a violation of the rights provided by the Fourth Amendment. Also, this document will display the history of the Exclusionary Rule, with its first appearance in the case, Boyd v. United States in 1886. Weeks v. United States will show a better-established, stronger version of the exclusionary rule. Another expansion of the rule will be described by the Mapp v. Ohio case. In this paper, I will also state and describe the four primary exceptions to the exclusionary rule: Inevitable Discovery Doctrine, Valid Independent Source, Harmless Error, and the Good Faith Exception. I will subsequently describe the possible abuse of these exceptions and the complications with the exceptions. The document will examine statistical data regarding the exclusionary rule and conclude with my personal opinions regarding the exclusionary rule and its exceptions.

According to TheFreeDictionary.com, the Exclusionary Rule, by definition, is “the principle based on federal Constitutional Law that evidence illegally seized by law enforcement officers in violation of a suspect's right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures cannot be used against the suspect in a criminal prosecution”. This doctrine prevents the introduction of evidence at a trial that was obtained by illegal police activity and/or investigation and excludes it from being admissible as evidence in court.
The exclusionary rule was originally designed to exclude evidence that was illegally obtained by an officer by violation of a person’s Fourth Amendment rights. “The exclusionary rule also helps preserve judicial integrity by preventing judicial agreement in denying a person’s Fourth Amendment rights, deters police misconduct by making improperly obtained evidence


References: Retrieved May 20, 2012, from Answers.com, Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/boyd-v-united-states Boyd v http://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/criminal-procedure/criminal-procedure-keyed-to-kamisar/grand-jury-investigations/boyd-v-united-states-2/ Evaluation of the Exclusionary Rule (2011) Essortment.com, retrieved May 20, 2012 from May 20, 2012, from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Exclusionary+Rule. Fourth Amendment (n.d.) Legal Information Institute, Retrieved May 20, 2012, from http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment Harr J., Hess, K., Orthmann, C. (2012). Constitutional Law and the Criminal Justice System. Independent Source (2012) USLegal.com, Retrieved May 20, 2012, from http://definitions.uslegal.com/i/independent-source-rule/ Mapp v. Ohio (2012) Answers.com, retrieved May 20, 2012, from http://www.answers.com/topic/mapp-v-ohio Murray v. United States (2012) Findlaw.com, retrieved May 20, 2012, from http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=487&invol=533 Rubin, P (1999) EFFECTS OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ON CRIME RATES: Mapping out the Consequences of the Exclusionary rule, retrieved May 20, 2012, from http://independent.org/pdf/working_papers/09_effects.pdf Weeks v. United States (2011).Cases.laws.com, retrieved May 20, 2012, from http://Cases.laws.com/Harvard-business-cases
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    4rth Amendment
    • 6813 Words
    • 28 Pages

    4rth Amendment

    The case present before us involves the constitutionality of a dog sniff in regards to the 4rth Amendment. The respondent claims that the police officer, a representative of the State of Florida lacked probable cause to search the vehicle. The dog used in the operation, Aldo was not reliable since his detector certification had expired. Also, the officer did not maintain a record of his field performance alerts. As a result, the respondent contends that Aldo’s alert was false thereby diminishing the validity of probable cause. On the other hand, the State of Florida counters by arguing that probable cause is a flexible common sense standard and requires only a fair probability and not hard certainties. Moreover, the officer who had trained with the dog is the best judge of the dog’s credibility as opposed to the Court’s especially since law enforcement agencies act with good faith. Consequently, defense counsel moved to suppress the physical evidence as the product of a warrantless search without probable cause. The trial court denied the motion to suppress but made no findings. The respondent then appealed to the Florida First District Court of Appeal. They affirmed. Harris v. State, 989 So. 2d 1214 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008). The Florida Supreme Court quashed the lower court decision. Harris v. State, 71 So. 3d 756 (Fla. 2011). The Court scrutinized the case under the totality of the circumstances test established in Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213 (1983) and concluded that Aldo’s reliability, was not enough to demonstrate probable cause.…

    • 6813 Words
    • 28 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Dollree Mapp Case Study
    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Dollree Mapp Case Study

    The court stated that the exclusionary rule also applies to states, meaning that states cannot use evidence gained by illegal means to convict someone. Clark argued that the Fourth Amendment strictly implies that the use of evidence obtained in violation of the amendment is unconstitutional. Furthermore this overturned the Wolf ruling, the Supreme Court had found that the Fourth Amendment’s protection against “police incursion into privacy” is incorporate if the right to privacy is incorporated. He also went on explaining the courts rationale based on the connection between the Fourth and the Fourteenth amendment when saying that since the Fourth amendment is a right of privacy and has been declared enforceable through the Fourteenth then it is enforceable against them by the same sanction of exclusion. The court believed that if the right to privacy stated in the Fourth amendment is valid with regard to action by the states they so should be exclusionary…

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Pros and Cons of the Exclusionary Rule
    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Pros and Cons of the Exclusionary Rule

    3. It results in the freeing of the guilty in a relatively small proportion of cases. A 1978 study by the General Accounting Office found that, of 2,804 cases in which defendants were likely to file a motion to suppress evidence, exclusion succeeded in only 1.3 percent. Moreover, the same study reported that, of the cases presented to federal prosecutors for prosecution, only 0.4 percent were declined by the prosecutors because of Fourth Amendment search and seizure problems.5 In 1983, another study found that “only between 0.6 and 2.35 percent…

    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    1100 CJ 2012 05s Feb
    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages

    1100 CJ 2012 05s Feb

    Explain the exclusionary rule and list the 6 major cases that define the rule. The exclusionary rule is a rule that prohibits the use of evidence or testimony obtained in violation of civil rights liberties and rights protected by the U.S. Constitution. The 6 major cases are Weeks vs. United States, Silverthorne Lumber co. vs. United States, Wolf vs. Colorado, Mapp vs. Ohio, Hudson vs. Michigan, Herring vs. United States.…

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Pros And Cons Of The Exclusionary Rule
    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Pros And Cons Of The Exclusionary Rule

    What the author intends to answer is what the exclusionary rule is and alternatives to the rule that potentially increase societal self-worth and positive reinforcement. This article explains to for the exclusionary rule, “it is a judge made rule of evidence, originated in 1914 by the Supreme Court in Weeks v. United States, which bars "the use of evidence secured through an illegal search and seizure.(Wilkey, 216)” What surprises the reader is finding out that the exclusionary rule is not a rule required by the constitution. It is through…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Exclusionary Rule: Case Study
    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Exclusionary Rule: Case Study

    I find that the evidence would still be valid based on the “good faith” exception to the exclusionary rule. The good faith exception states “that If officers had a reasonable, good-faith belief that they were acting per legal authority, such as by relying on a search warrant that is later found to have been legally defective, the illegally seized evidence is admissible” (Busby, 2009). The good faith exception was established by a 6-3 U.S Supreme court decision in the United States v. Leon 468 U.S. 897 (1984). The majority opinion, as written by Bryon R. White, was that the exclusionary rule was established to deter law enforcements violations of the 4th amendment warranting against illegal search and seizure. Therefore “reliable physical evidence seized by officers reasonably relying on a warrant issued by a detached and neutral magistrate” did not violate the exclusionary rule and the evidence was to be admitted (Kaye, 2011). The good faith exception was reviewed and expanded in Arizona v. Evans 514 U.S. 1 (1995), a case that I feel directly correlates to my decision reference the admissibility of the evidence in the example given. In Arizona v. Evans an officer conducts a legal traffic stop. Upon running the driver’s license the officer discovers an outstanding warrant for arrest. Pursuant to the arrest a search was conduct and marijuana discovered. When charging Evan’s when possession the officers discovered that the warrant had been quashed. In a 7-2 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that this was not a violation of Evan’s 4th Amendment rights since the evidence, though obtained based on an illegal warrant, was legal based on the good faith…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Unit 3 Fourth Amendment
    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Unit 3 Fourth Amendment

    Other conditions on the searches incident to arrest exception include the use of force, the search of other individuals with the arrested individual, searching the vehicle of an arrest…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ap Government
    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Ap Government

    | An exception to the Supreme Court exclusionary rule, holding that evidence seized on the basis of a…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Exclusionary Rule
    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Exclusionary Rule

    Now over time the Supreme Court has looked at the exclusionary rule a number of times and as the supreme court became more conservative in the 1970s and the 1080s, they began to carve out exceptions to the exclusionary rule. The classic exception come from a case called United States verses Leon, and it is called the "good faith" exception. What that means is if the police officer obtains evidence in a good faith belief that they have complied with your constitutional rights, that evidence can still be used against you even if we later find out that there was a problem with the search and seizure. So if the police go to a judge, obtain a warrant, search your home and find drugs, they find out a week later that there was a problem with the warrant and that technically it was an illegal search. The drugs still come in against you because the officers acted in a good faith belief that they had played by the rules. The Supreme Court has repeatedly said that the exclusionary rule is to prevent us against rogue police officers not against clerical errors or errors on behalf of the…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Exclusionary Rule
    • 1743 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Exclusionary Rule

    The exclusionary rule was first introduced in 1914 during the case Weeks v. United States. . In this case a federal marshal conducted a search without having the proper warrant and seized illegal lottery tickets. The Weeks Court felt that the only effective way to enforce the Fourth Amendment right to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures was to adopt a rule that evidence seized in violation of the Fourth…

    • 1743 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Business Law
    • 905 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Business Law

    The fourth amendment protects citizens from illegal search and seizure. Her attorney would probably argue that the police officer had violated her right that is protected by the fourth amendment. A search warrant is only granted with in an event where there is a probable cause. The warrants have to be granted by a judge. The exclusionary rule which was created by the Supreme Court rules that evidence which is “illegally” obtained by the police and all following information thereafter cannot be used to convict a person accused of a crime. In this particular case,…

    • 905 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Police Encounters with Suspects and Evidence
    • 1352 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Police Encounters with Suspects and Evidence

    Stuckey, G., Roberson, C., & Wallace, H. (2006). Procedures in the justice system (8th Ed.).…

    • 1352 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Exclusionary Rule Evaluation
    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Exclusionary Rule Evaluation

    The legal principle established by the exclusionary rule is embodied in the United States of America Constitution and relates to the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Fourth Amendment protects the people by prohibiting illegal searches and seizures. The Fourteenth Amendment ensures offenders are afforded their rights to due process in a criminal trial according to the law. The exclusionary rule also applies to the Fifth Amendment, which protect the people against self incrimination when charged with an offense by a government officer. Furthermore, the rule applies to interrogations where the offender is often pressured by officers to confess to their crimes. In turn, the rule also applies to the Sixth Amendment that ensures every offender has the right to have legal counsel. Ultimately, the rule greatly influences the credibility of any evidence gathered, by government officers, for use in the prosecution of an accused offender. If the evidence presented to the court is found to have been collected in violation of the rule it may be suppressed in any federal or state court.…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Exclusionary Rule Evaluation
    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Exclusionary Rule Evaluation

    The exclusionary rule is an important doctrine supporting the ideals of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Fourth Amendment provides people under the jurisdiction of the American criminal justice system protections from unreasonable searches and seizures. The amendment also delineates the methods members of the criminal justice system may obtain information via judicially sanctioned search warrants based on probable cause. The exclusionary rule exempts some evidence even when the seizure or location of the evidence may violate the Fourth Amendment. The rule also provides some benefits and detriments for members of the criminal justice system when gathering evidence or prosecuting offenders. However, the exclusionary rule is an important doctrine to members of the criminal justice system demonstrating a means to introduce evidence in the furtherance of justice.…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    The Fourth Amendment
    • 2793 Words
    • 12 Pages

    The Fourth Amendment

    Calsyn, J. D., Hale, B. C., Kranz, H., Grossman, M. R., & Kim, N. E. (1998). Warrantless searches and seizures. Georgetown Law Journal, 86, 1214-1288.…

    • 2793 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More