Court Opinion

ID: 9750126
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 14:21:37.477225+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:02.991418
License: Public Domain

Grimes, J.,
dissenting in part and concurring in part:
I concur in Stone but dissent in Lemire. The cases cited by the court support its position but I disagree with those cases, which are in no way binding on this court. There is little difference between convicting a man on unconstitutional evidence and revoking his probation and sending him to prison on the same evidence.
The fourth amendment “protects all, those suspected or known to be offenders as well as the innocent”. Go-Bart Importing Co. v. United States, 282 U.S. 344, 357, 75 L. Ed. 374, 382, 51 S. Ct. 153, 158 (1931) (emphasis added); Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 33, 10 L. Ed. 2d 726, 737, 83 S. Ct. 1623, 1629 (1963).
The more often stated basis for the exclusionary rule is to deter unconstitutional police action. The use of the evidence as in this case dilutes that deterrent effect. The second and, I believe, the more important basis of the rule is the “imperative of judicial integrity”. Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 222, 4 L. Ed. 2d 1669, 1680, 80 S. Ct. 1437, 1447 (1960); Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659, 6 L. Ed. 2d 1081, *1791092, 81 S. Ct. 1684, 1694 (1961). The use of evidence by the court has the necessary effect of legitimizing the police conduct which produced the evidence. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 13, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889, 901, 88 S. Ct. 1868, 1875 (1968).
The use of such evidence obtained in violation of the fourth amendment results in a society seeking to live off violations of “the charter of its own existence.” Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659, 6 L. Ed. 2d 1081, 1092, 81 S. Ct. 1684, 1694 (1961).
Both reasons for the exclusionary rule require that such evidence not be used as it was in this case.