Exclusionary Rule Flashcards
Exclusionary Rule
-a remedy of American constitutional procedure whereby someone who has been the victim of illegal search or a coerced statement can have the product of that illegal search or that coerced statement excluded from any subsequent criminal prosecution
Limitations on Exclusion
1-exclusion doesn’t apply to grand jury proceedings
a-a grand jury witness may be compelled to testify based on illegally seized evidence
2-exclusion is not an available remedy in civil proceedings
3-exclusion is not an available remedy in parole revocation proceedings
4-exclusion does not apply to the use of excluded evidence for impeachment purposes
a-since 1980, ALL illegally seized evidence may be admitted to impeach the credibility of the defendant’s trial testimony
b-NOTE-only defendant’s trial testimony may be impeached–not the testimony of other defense witnesses
5-exclusion is not an available remedy for violations of the knock and announce rule
“Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” doctrine
1-the doctrine will not only exclude illegally seized evidence, but will also exclude ALL evidence obtained or derived from police illegality
2-NOTE-the Fruit of the Poisonous Tree doctrine does not apply to Miranda violations–unless the police act in bad faith in obtaining such information
3-there are 3 ways the gov’t can break the chain between an original, unlawful police action and some supposedly derived piece of evidence
a. the gov’t could show that it had independent source for that evidence, independent of that original police illegality
b. inevitable discovery–the police would have inevitably discovered this evidence anyways
c. intervening acts of free will on the part of defendant
The Exclusionary Rule and convictions
1-a conviction will not necessarily be overturned because improperly obtained evidence was admitted at trial
2-on appeal, a court will apply the harmless error test
3-under the test, a conviction will be upheld if the conviction would have resulted despite the improper evidence
