Opinion ID: 368343
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Misconduct on the Part of Law Enforcement Officials

Text: 11 On May 26, 1978, law enforcement officials obtained evidence relating to the bank robbery in a search of the Doby residence. 9 Before trial, the District Court found the search of Doby's residence to be illegal, and suppressed the evidence seized in the search. Fultz, however, is dissatisfied with the remedy of suppression of the evidence, and contends that the illegal search mandates dismissal of the indictment or a directed verdict. This argument directly opposes established law and practice. In United States v. Blue, 384 U.S. 251, 255, 86 S.Ct. 1416, 16 L.Ed.2d 510 (1966), the Supreme Court stated: 12 Our numerous precedents ordering the exclusion of such illegally obtained evidence assume implicitly that the remedy does not extend to barring the prosecution altogether. So drastic a step might advance marginally some of the ends served by exclusionary rules, but it would also increase to an intolerable degree interference with the public interest in having the guilty brought to book. 13 The trial judge suppressed the illegally seized evidence. Dismissal of the indictment or a directed verdict was not required. On the contrary, granting this relief to the defendant would drape a cloak of immunity around a perpetrator of a serious crime, and would be inimical to the public's interest in law enforcement.