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Supreme Court rules no evidence suppression required for police negligence

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court decided two cases Wednesday. The Court ruled 5-4 in Herring v. United States that evidence seized during a search incident to an arrest does not have to be suppressed when the sole premise for the arrest was information later found to be negligently provided by another law enforcement agency. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the Court. Roberts held: an officer reasonably believes there is an out-standing arrest warrant, but that belief turns out to be wrong because of a negligent bookkeeping error by an-other police employee ... the jury should not be barred from considering all the evidence.Justice Ginsburg filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, and Stephen Breyer joined. Ginsburg warned that, "the 'most serious impact' of the Court's holding will be on innocent persons 'wrongfully arrested based on erroneous information in a computer data base.'" Breyer also filed a separate dissent, in which Souter joined. The ruling affirms the decision of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The Court also ruled 5-4 in Chambers v. United States that it is not unconstitutional for a convict to be sentenced to consecutive rather than concurrent terms for burglary and sex offenses when a judge rather than a jury determined that the crimes arose out of separate offenses. Writing for the court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reasoned:The jury-trial right is best honored through a "principled rationale" that applies the rule of the Apprendi cases "within the central sphere of their concern." Our disposition today — upholding an Oregon statute that assigns to judges a decision that has not traditionally belonged to the jury — is faithful to that aim.Justice Antonin Scalia filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justices David Souter, Clarence Thomas, and Chief Justice John Roberts joined. Scalia wrote:The rule of Apprendi v. New Jersey is clear: Any fact — other than that of a prior conviction — that increases the maximum punishment to which a defendant may be sentenced must be admitted by the defendant or proved beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury. Oregon's sentencing scheme allows judges rather than juries to find the facts necessary to commit defendants to longer prison sentences, and thus directly contradicts what we held eight years ago and have reaffirmed several times since.The decision reverses the ruling of the Oregon Supreme Court.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 14, 2009 (boomark / email).