[632] in libertarians
Re: Search & Seizure
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Adam Dershowitz)
Fri Feb 10 09:47:27 1995
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 95 09:46:03 EST
To: <sybok@MIT.EDU>, libertarians@MIT.EDU
From: dersh@MIT.EDU (Adam Dershowitz)
At 11:18 PM 2/9/95,
--------------------------------------------------------------- wrote:
>>The problem is not that illegally seized evidence is used in criminal
>>prosecution but that the persons violating the 4th ammendment are not
>>prosecuted. The Supreme Court, in its infinite wisdom, decided not to let
>>illegally siezed evidence be used at trial. Hence society loses by letting
>>a criminal go free.
>
>The justice system is designed to protect the rights of the accused,
>and as such, focuses on the defendant. The policeman is not important,
>the defendant IS. I don't buy that "society" loses by letting the
>"criminal" go free. Only 1.5% of criminal cases involve illegally seized
>evidence in the first place, hardly a statistically significant number to
>have an impact on the crime rate even if they were all turned into convictions.
If this bill passes, allowing the illegal evidence in, then this number
will clearly go up significantly.
Police routinely claim that drugs were "dropped by the defendant" or "were
in plain view" (in the defendant's pocket). At least the current laws
discourage cops from both using the illegal evidence or at least admitting
it. This minor protection will go away if the law passes.
While from a theoretical point of view you might be able to prosecute
police, remember the pracatical side. The witness would be someone who was
arrested and convicted for drug possession, and he would be testifying
against a fine upstanding law officer. Very little chance of getting any
kind of conviction. When you turn it around this way, then the burden of
proof protects the accused cop. Remember how hard it was to get any
conviction against cops in the Rodney King case, and that was on VIDEO!
(And a conviction only happened because double jeperdy rights were thrown
out.
--Adam Dershowitz
