Unit 3 Alternate Assignment
Brittany Clark
Intro to Constitutional Law
April 13, 2014 Unit 3 Alternate Assignment There are many different laws and rules that officers of the court and police officers have to follow so that people are not mistreated and that evidence in a court room is able to be used instead of being thrown out. “The Exclusionary Rule prevents the government from using most evidence gathered in violation of the United States Constitution” (Exclusionary Rule, n.d.). If the exclusionary rule wasn’t in place, officers could admit anything into evidence and could search houses without a warrant which isn’t fair to potential offenders. The exclusionary rule has a right to be used in a court room and in the criminal justice system. Potential criminals are people and have rights too and if those rights are violated by officers who feel they can take evidence without a warrant or without it being in plain view, and then they have the right to have that evidence thrown out of court. It is up to our public officials in the criminal justice system to uphold the law and do things the right way rather than bending the rules and letting potential criminal back on the streets to commit more crimes. If there were a case that had the crucial piece of evidence, such as a murder weapon, that was gained illegally, then it should be thrown out. That is what the law states. My opinion is this way because it is a violation of the 4th Amendment if this evidence was gained illegally. There is no reason that these rights should be violated and the officers who gathered the evidence should have known better than to take anything out of the home without a warrant unless it was in plain view. Since it wasn’t in plain view, the officers had no right to take it out of the home or admit it into evidence.
