NCJ Number
127823
Date Published
1990
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This chapter reviews three U.S. Supreme Court decisions pertinent to the "good faith" exception to the exclusionary rule.
Abstract
In United States v. Leon (1984), the U.S. Supreme Court held that evidence seized under a search warrant eventually judged deficient in the probable-cause requirement should be received, provided the officer executing the warrant acted in reasonable reliance on the validity of a warrant issued by a detached and neutral magistrate or judge. In Massachusetts v. Sheppard (1984), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the exclusionary rule should not bar evidence seized by police officers pursuant to a warrant later found to be invalid because of a technical error by the issuing judge. In this case, the judge approved the use of a warrant form from another jurisdiction, a form which the trial court ruled to be insufficient in particularizing the items to be seized. In Illinois v. Krull (1987), the Court held that the exclusionary rule does not apply to evidence obtained by police who act in objectively reasonable reliance upon a statute authorizing warrantless administrative searches when that statute is subsequently found to violate the fourth amendment.