The Real History of the Exclusionary Rule
Matthew Scully has a fascinating article in NRO about the history of the exclusionary rule in criminal prosecutions. For those not familiar with it, the exclusionary rule prohibits illegally obtained evidence from being used against a criminal defendant at trial. There are many exceptions to the rule and the term "illegally obtained" often does not mean police use of coersion, etc., but rather violation of technical rules. Scully looks at the recent SCOTUS case involving the "knock and announce" rule in Hudson v. Michigan.

Scully goes on to describe the beginnings of the exclusionary rule in Weeks v. US and Mapp v. Ohio. The true history of these cases is not as described in law school text books and may cause you to loose some faith in integrity of the Supreme Court.
- posted by Base10 @ 12:40 PM