36
votes
Accepted
Why can courts refuse evidence?
Different exclusionary rules have different reasons.
Hearsay is frequently inadmissible because it's less reliable for the court to hear Alice saying "Bob told me that Carol hit him" than to ...
- 35.1k
27
votes
Accepted
Can a private person deceive a defendant to obtain evidence?
england-and-wales
Admission of the confession is at the discretion of the court
PACE s78 gives the court the discretion to decide on the admissibility of confessions obtained if it appears to the ...
- 198k
26
votes
Can a private person deceive a defendant to obtain evidence?
united-states
The confession is inadmissible, as it is protected by attorney-client privilege. Although Nirmal was in fact not an attorney at all, the conversation would have been privileged if the ...
- 29k
26
votes
Why can courts refuse evidence?
You need to ask why evidence gets excluded. For example evidence that was obtained by a search without a proper warrant. That's not excluded to protect criminals, it's excluded so that law abiding ...
- 32.9k
24
votes
Accepted
At an unlawful traffic stop, police searches the car and find the weapon used in a recent murder
So, lets say for argument's sake the search is illegal (we'll discuss scenario later).
Is the murder weapon inadmissible?
No. Evidence seized in an illegal search is inadmissible for use in court, ...
- 22.8k
13
votes
Is privilege often misused to mean confidential?
The terms confidential and privileged are not interchangeable, but they have closely related meanings that pertain to secrets. Both terms are, indeed, often misused when the other term would be the ...
- 196k
9
votes
Accepted
Does the exclusionary rule attach to the illegality of the search or to the person whose rights were violated?
In order to challenge a search at trial via an evidence suppression motion, the particular defendant has to have Fourth Amendment "standing"1 with respect to that search: Rakas v. Illinois, ...
- 44.1k
9
votes
Why can courts refuse evidence?
TL;DR: The law against torture and unwarranted searches have the same base justification: to protect the guilty. Why protect the guilty? Because if the law doesn’t protect the guilty, it won’t ...
- 2,041
8
votes
Admitting to a misdemeanor crime on an "official" police application
It is possible. If you say e.g. "On March 12 2021 I stole a steak from the grocery store at the corner of Smith St. and Wesson Ave.", that is a confession. It is voluntary and not coerced (...
- 211k
6
votes
Why did US law go with inadmissibility, and not reactionary punitive action, to prevent illegal evidence collection?
The problem with Solution 2 is that government officials in the United States enjoy qualified immunity with respect to actions that they did while acting under color of law. It's not total immunity, ...
- 22.8k
6
votes
Accepted
Is a statement saying that a party committed a crime by a non-benefiting accessory to the crime considered a party-opponent admission?
No.
In federal court (and under state rules of evidence based upon the Federal Rules of Evidence) this is governed by Federal Rule of Evidence 801(d)(2) which states that:
A statement is not hearsay ...
- 196k
5
votes
Self-incriminating statements carry weight of proof
united-states
Can Carlos use recorded confession (self-incriminating statements) as
evidence?
Usually, but with some important exceptions.
A confession to a crime is generally admissible evidence. ...
- 196k
5
votes
Accepted
US exclusionary rule - are there limits?
The Likely Ruling
Assuming points 1 and 2 in the question, all the evidence from the trunk would be inadmissible, and if there really is no other evidence against Bob, then Bob would go free. This is ...
- 113k
5
votes
At an unlawful traffic stop, police searches the car and find the weapon used in a recent murder
For an alternative jurisdiction
australia
The Evidence Act 1995 (Cth) and the similarly named acts in new-south-wales, victoria, tasmania, australian-capital-territory and northern-territory are all ...
- 198k
5
votes
At an unlawful traffic stop, police searches the car and find the weapon used in a recent murder
Under the Fourth Amendment, police need a reason both to stop a car and also to search it. (Under current precedent, they need "reasonable suspicion" to stop the car, and "probable ...
- 8,378
5
votes
Why did US law go with inadmissibility, and not reactionary punitive action, to prevent illegal evidence collection?
A major problem with the "punish the wrong-doing officer" route is that it relies on action outside the power of the courts. When a judge is faced with illegally obtained evidence, they have ...
- 221
4
votes
Accepted
Can exclusion of evidence as to a question subject’s past habits and proclivities stand in any other context than that of a complainant’s consent?
canada
Judges always retain the residual discretion to exclude evidence where its probative value is outweighed by its prejudicial effect.
The quotations that follow are from R. v. Handy, 2002 SCC 56.
...
- 44.1k
3
votes
Why can courts refuse evidence?
common-law
that confuses be because... well, there's evidence. It leads to the truth. Why aren't you taking it?!
Firstly, because whether a piece of evidence actually leads to "the truth" ...
- 25.8k
3
votes
secretly recording a murder confession
Disclosure to police of an illegal recording is permitted by s. 193(2)(e), and in court by s. 193(2)(a). The recording could be excluded if the person who made the recording did so on behalf of police ...
- 31
3
votes
Are evidentiary rules concerning admissibility of observations about a complainant’s habits or character against fundamental rights/precepts?
The Supreme Court of Canada has held unanimously that section 276 does not infringe any Charter rights. See R. v. Darrach, 2000 SCC 46.
Your question makes the same error that the appellant made in ...
- 44.1k
2
votes
Accepted
How to do court admissible DNA testing when both parties live far apart?
Generally, the courts don't care about who is genetically related to who, but establishing paternity is a special case. The specifics are governed by state law, here is what Washington does. Under ...
- 211k
2
votes
Accepted
Can improperly gathered evidence be used to exonerate someone?
You're referring to the Exclusionary Rule, which bars the government's use of evidence it obtained in a bad-faith violation of the defendant's Fourth Amendment rights. It is typically only applied ...
- 57.2k
2
votes
Why did US law go with inadmissibility, and not reactionary punitive action, to prevent illegal evidence collection?
They didn’t
At least in common-law jurisdictions outside the united-states.
In england-and-wales, canada, australia, and others, illegally obtained evidence is admissible. In most jurisdictions this ...
- 198k
2
votes
Admissibility of covert recordings in English criminal proceedings
At common law almost all relevant evidences are by default admissible and there is no bar to admission of evidence based on how it is obtained, especially by a private person, even if the manner of ...
- 5,786
2
votes
Questions regarding lack of evidence/reasoning for initial interaction with law enforcement and how that affects any infraction discovered thereafter
Law enforcement does not need to secure signed testimony for their bases of action.
Even anonymous tips can give an law enforcement officer “a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the ...
- 44.1k
2
votes
Why can courts refuse evidence?
Does that mean that the perpetrator gets to go free?
Quite possibly, depending on the case.
Why is this so and where is this practice useful?
At some point it was decided that it's better to let ...
- 213
2
votes
Is privilege often misused to mean confidential?
Confidentiality is one part of the privilege. Other parts include that the law practitioner must act in your best interest and that there should be no conflict of interest and that your lawayer must ...
- 4,757
1
vote
Why can courts refuse evidence?
Your question invokes fairness of outcomes, i.e. you perceive the system as more fair if it is more accurate in determining guilt versus innocence. In other words, distributive justice.
Another ...
- 111
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible