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On 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
by tanderson92 8y ago
On 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
- tanderson92 8y ago> 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." There must be an understanding here. A warrant executed for an invented and fictitious reason doesn't become "good" because it "finds something"; it's dubious precisely because of its provenance (a lie to cover an unconstitutional search). Whether there really is anything found doesn't impact the constitutionality of a search: that is the point of the "exclusionary rule" -- to exclude real, honest-to-goodness incriminating evidence of a defendant but which is found in violation of his/her constitutional rights. We cannot judge the rightness of a warrant based on whether it leads to useful evidence because then we would have no 4th amendment at all. Therefore, parallel construction doesn't improve anything; rather, it can only serve to increase the number of searches executed for fictitious reasons, and hence the number of dubious warrants. nb: obviously, the above comment assumes/argues that Herring v United States was incorrectly decided. Also, I am not an appellate lawyer (or a lawyer at all).
- ghostbrainalpha 8y agoI think it goes like this.... 2. DEA suggests asks officer if they think stolen items might be in Alice's basement. 3. Officer investigates Alice looking for a connection to the stolen items that is strong enough to warrant a search of Alice' basement.
- danso 8y agoParallel construction.
- reshie 8y agoknowing something is going on or is/was there can give way to investigation of course you need probable cause or more for a warrent there is also finding things with unrelated matters but in the course of that investigation. or as noja said make something up.