Exclusionary Rule
Chapter 20.2
Rights of the accused
• The heart of the guarantee against
unreasonable searches and seizures
and self incrimination lies in this
question: “if evidence is gathered
illegally can this ‘tainted evidence’ be
used in court?
Rights of the accused
• If the evidence could still be used, what
incentives exist for the government to
comply with the Constitution
• If the evidence can’t be used, criminals will
get away with crimes that the government
knows they are guilty of
The Exclusionary Rule
• The Exclusionary Rule says that
evidence gained as the result of an
illegal act by police cannot be used at
the trial of the person from whom it was
seized.
Weeks v. United States (1914)
• In this narcotics case, the Court held that
evidence obtained illegally by federal officers
could not be used in the federal courts.
• For more than four decades, however, the
Court left questions of the use of such
evidence in State courts for each State to
decide for itself.
Mapp v. Ohio (1961)
• The Court held that the 14th Amendment’s
Due Process Clause forbids unreasonable
searches and seizures by State and local
officers just as the 4th Amendment bars such
actions by federal officers.
• It also held that the fruits of an unlawful
search and seizure cannot be used in the
State courts, just as they can not be used in
the federal courts.
Narrowing the Scope
• The Exclusionary Rule has always been controversial. It was
intended to put teeth into the 4th Amendment.
• Critics of the rule say that it means that some persons who are
clearly guilty nonetheless go free.
• Nix v. Williams (1984), the Courts found an “inevitable
discovery” exception to the rule.
• United States v. Leon (1984), the Court found a “good faith”
exception to the rule.
• Arizona v. Evans (1995), the Court held that the good faith
exception applied in a case where evidence of a crime was
seized by police who acted on the basis of a computer printout
that later proved to be false.
• In Maryland v. Garrison (1987), the Court gave police room for
“honest mistakes”. There, it allowed the use of evidence seized
in the mistaken search of an apartment in Baltimore.