Persons Who May Object to Unlawful Searches and Seizures - 1980 Supreme Court Cases of 'Standing' Limit Application of the Exclusionary Rule

• NCJ Number: 97589
• Author(s): K S Cannaday
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 10 pages
• Corporate Author: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Administration of Justice Memoranda, N 81/01 (January 1981).

Annotation

This paper describes three U.S. Supreme Court decisions during the 1980 term which further limit the application of the exclusionary rule for unconstitutional searches and seizures; it also explains the application of these decisions to North Carolina.

Abstract

The 1960 decision in Jones v. United States and decisions in 1968 and 1978 focused on the issue of the standing of criminal defendants to move for suppression of evidence obtained in an unlawful search. The three 1980 decisions substantially limit the application of the exclusionary rule and apply the limitation strictly, even in the face of flagrant government misconduct. The search in United States v. Salvucci dealt with the dwelling of someone other than the defendant. In Rawlings v. Kentucky, the search was of a third party's purse. In United States v. Payner, the search was of a briefcase of a third party. Under these decisions, the defendant wishing to suppress the fruit of a search has the burden of showing both that the search was unlawful and that the defendant had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the place searched. The new limitations on the application of the exclusionary rule will bind North Carolina courts and will be to the advantage of prosecutors in several important ways. The decisions do not, however, reduce the substantive protection given defendants once the fourth amendment is held to apply. Twelve footnotes are supplied.