Re:Does China’s digital police state have echoes in the West?
by jellicle on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @01:15PM
(#17348449)
US cop-TV shows often treat it as a given, but US courts allow in bad evidence more often than not. US supreme court decisions are generally against the exclusionary rule, and it's likely to mostly disappear in the US in the near future, except for very rich defendants. Here's the most recent one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_v._Michigan
where everyone involved says the evidence was seized improperly, unconstitutionally, but the evidence is very much in and the defendants are in prison today.
>> Both the US and Canada can often use evidence seized illegally - the judges in both places have the ability, but not the obligation, to throw out such evidence.
Look that one up. The US is very big on the exclusionary rule. If evidence was seized improperly, unconstitutionally, it is out. The most famous US criminal cases (think Miranda) involve excluding evidence for such reasons, even if that means an admitted criminal is to be set free. The concept so permeates US legal culture that courts take is as a necessary implication whenever discussing evidence.