Reference no: EM133921005

Assignment:

Exclusionary Rule by definition: "A legal rule that bars unlawfully obtained evidence from being used in court proceedings."

Alright, let's look deep within ourselves as a society and go down the rabbit hole in this subject. Should the exclusionary rule be abolished? Absolutely not. The exclusionary rule is one of those doctrines that would tip the scales of whether this is a free country or not. The main purpose of our justice system is to keep the crime rate at an acceptable level. Not completely abolish it. If that were attempted, then this country would fall apart. It would no longer be called "Land of the Free." If police officers were able to arrest and collect evidence however they see fit, then chaos would ensue.

The rule is already on the border of having too many loopholes to have any effect in protecting a person's rights. So, I do not believe there should be any more exceptions to the rule. We can all figure out that in places where there is a lot of crime, there are those police officers who want to try and make a big difference. So, they try to use every reason they can to try and arrest people they know are committing crimes by finding any angle that is enough for probable cause. For this reason, I do not agree with adding exceptions to the exclusionary rule.

There is one exception, however, that I disagree with... That is the Attenuation Doctrine. It would not be surprising if this is the most abused exception to the exclusionary rule. I do agree that if the suspect in question is not careful and constantly makes mistakes, then they put themselves in that situation. To fix this, it should only be in effect of a possible violent crime. Yes, drugs are illegal, but most people are trying to self-medicate to get by in the world we live in. Abusing these drugs can and will lead to someone getting hurt. Half of the drugs in the world are medicines, and half of the medicines in our society are drugs. Some people cannot afford medical care.

State v. Young

An officer stopped Young's vehicle without reasonable suspicion. During the stop, the officer learned of an outstanding arrest warrant. Young was arrested, and the officer searched her car. During the search, he found Methamphetamine. In the end, it was found that the outstanding arrest warrant did not qualify as an "intervening circumstance" strong enough to attenuate the "taint" of the initial Fourth Amendment violation (Young v. State, 2021)

Reference:

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Exclusionary rule. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary.

Young v. State, No. 21A-CR-00012 (Ind. Ct. App. Aug. 31, 2021).