Court Opinion

ID: 9722095
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:16:47.051755+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:30.651313
License: Public Domain

Fitzgerald, J.
(dissenting). I respectfully dissent from the majority’s conclusion that the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule does not, in the absence of an indication that the police knew or had reason to know that they were targeting a probationer, apply to probation revocation proceedings. See United States v Workman, 585 F2d 1205, 1209-1211 (CA 4, 1978). Noting the similarity between a probation violation proceeding and other criminal adjudicative proceedings, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals stated:
*360[T]he Supreme Court has never exempted from the operation of the exclusionary rule any adjudicative proceeding in which the government offers unconstitutionally seized evidence in direct support of a charge that may subject the victim of a search to imprisonment. Indeed, the court has observed that standing to invoke the exclusionary rule "is premised on a recognition that the need for deterrence and hence the rationale for excluding the evidence are strongest where the Government’s unlawful conduct would result in imposition of a criminal sanction on the victim of the search.” [Id. at 1211; citation omitted.]
Although a probation revocation proceeding is not a stage of a criminal prosecution, it is a criminal proceeding similar to a criminal trial and may result in a loss of liberty. I would hold, therefore, that the trial court must determine whether defendant’s probation should be continued or revoked without reliance on the unconstitutionally seized evidence and would reverse and remand for such a determination.