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Six years later, the DEA embraced the secrecy, going so far to keep it out of the DEA’s equivalent of its internal police reports, DEA Form 6, referred to as “6
by apo 8y ago
Six years later, the DEA embraced the secrecy, going so far to keep it out of the DEA’s equivalent of its internal police reports, DEA Form 6, referred to as “6s” in the email below.
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While these tactics were not enough to keep the existence of the program secret, all information indicates that law enforcement continues to hide its use in criminal cases. If you believe that Hemisphere may have been used in your case, please reach out to info@eff.org.
Has a criminal case ever been successfully overturned on the basis of parallel construction having been used?
- tanderson92 8y agoOn the contrary: the Supreme Court has provided an approved way for parallel construction to be laundered into a valid evidentiary tree: by passing it off to a second officer who develops the case on a good-faith basis (see Herring vs. United States[1]). [1]: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2558737 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2558737
- devoply 8y agoNot as if the first officer can talk to the second officer... US justice system including the supreme court leave much to be desired.
- loeg 8y agoI think that was implied by GP's characterization of the practice as "laundering."
- jancsika 8y agoI don't understand. 1. NSA whispers to DEA that stolen items are in Alice's basement. 2. DEA whispers to officer that stolen items are in Alice's basement. 3. Officer... does what? How is a warrant obtained to search Alice's basement?
- ataturk 8y agoparallel construction? Officer sniffs around until he comes up with the right pretext.
- XalvinX 8y agoThey simply fake something "reasonable" to get a warrant, or more likely search without one at all...cops have a lot of latitude in the field. Even easier is pulling over people in cars and "accidentally" finding the stolen items while "looking for weapons" or whatever else. If they want to get you and you aren't a multimillionaire with good attorneys, they can.
- noja 8y agoInvents a reason to search, and definitely finds something.
- tanderson92 8y agoPresto chango, the poisonous fruit is magically judicially edible!
- jlg23 8y agoThe PC wording is "Finds a reason..."
- joering2 8y agoThis happens all the time. Its called “anonymous tip came through a tip hot line”.
- jancsika 8y agoThat's cute, but it doesn't make sense. I'm no lawyer, but I don't think judges overlook constitutional rights just because an officer "found something." In fact, I believe there's an entire industry of defense lawyers that exists because judges don't overlook those rights. From another vantage point-- if officers can invent reasons for searches that pass legal muster, then what does it matter that parallel construction exists and has a constitutional loophole? If it were really the case that there's an epidemic of invented reasons for warrants then parallel construction would improve the status quo by reducing the number of dubious warrants, leaving only those that "find something." I'm playing devils advocate here to fish for a legally competent response... Edit: typo and clarification
- onetimemanytime 8y agoAnon calling, letters, online tips to 100% certain criminal activity. Go ahead and get Comcast logs from 8 years ago to prove that the tipster was a DEA agent essentially informing himself /his agency. Even if he didn't use Tor or whatever.
- ryacko 8y agoEven if one lives a legal life and has no indication of ever being inclined to criminal activity, the cops will still hound you and claim they aren’t doing anything at all.