Legal Commentary: Court Use of Illegally-Obtained Statement of Defendant, Double Jeopardy, Unreasonable Searches (Early Law) (From Crime to Court: Police Officer's Handbook, P 9-10, 1990 Joseph C Coleman -- See NCJ-122697)

• NCJ Number: 122699
• Author(s): J C Coleman
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 2 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: South Carolina Educational Television Network
• Corporate Author: South Carolina Criminal Justice Acad
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Several recent Supreme Court decisions relating to illegally-obtained statements of defendants, double jeopardy, and unreasonable searches are discussed in detail.

Abstract

The U.S. Supreme Court has recently ruled that illegally obtained statements made by a defendant may be used by the prosecution to impeach the defendant, but not to impeach other witnesses. A defendant is subjected to double jeopardy if, after being acquitted of robbing one of several individuals gathered together for a poker game, he is tried again for the robbery of still another of the poker players. On the other hand, a witness who identified in court a defendant accused and acquitted of a crime may legally offer the identification testimony at another trial of the defendant for another crime. Defendants acquitted of criminal charges may be brought to court in a civil action dealing with the same matter and not be subject to double jeopardy. The law of unreasonable searches is discussed, with emphasis on pretext searches.