Saturday, February 24, 2007

 

This Day in American History

On this day in 1914 the case of Weeks v. United States is announced and published, in which the U.S. Supreme Court gave birth to the "exclusionary rule": Evidence seized illegally by the police is excluded from subsequent trial. Our British cousins have looked at the problem of keeping in check police zealous to catch the bad guys by any means necessary and have decided, rightly, that the exclusionary rule is a bad idea. In England, solid evidence no matter how obtained (within reason) comes in. Why should society pay for the error of the police with a criminal free to recidivate? For the life of me, I can't think of a way to keep what would be a tiny fraction of the American police in line, so it looks like were stuck with this bad idea.

Comments:
"I can't think of a way ..."

Make any policeman who is found to have violated a person's rights personally responsible, both in civil and criminal law. Further, if this violation was at the direction of a superior, the superior shares in the responsibility both criminally and civilly. This puts the responsibility where it should be.
 
This is the English system. So the crinimal sues the policeman from prison. Maybe. I'll think on it.
 
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