What is the exclusionary rule? What is its primary purpose? Briefly explain both exceptions to the exclusionary rule.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The exclusionary rule is a judicially created remedy for violations of the Fourth Amendment. It
provides that any evidence obtained by law enforcement officers in violation of the Fourth Amendment
guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures is not admissible in a criminal trial to prove guilt.
The exclusionary rule was applied to the federal government in Weeks v. United States in 1914 and
applied to the states in Mapp v. Ohio in 1961. The primary purpose of the exclusionary rule is to deter
police misconduct although it also serves to protect judicial integrity. The two exceptions to the
exclusionary rule are the good faith exception and the inevitable discovery exception. The good faith
exception was established in Massachusetts v. Sheppard and United States v. Leon and states that
evidence obtained by the police acting in good faith on a search warrant issued by a neutral and detached
magistrate, which is ultimately found to be invalid, may nonetheless be admitted at trial. The Court
emphasized that the good faith exception did not apply to errors made by the police, even if the errors
were entirely inadvertent. The inevitable discovery exception was established in Nix v. Williams and
permits the use at trial of evidence illegally obtained by the police if they can demonstrate that they would
have discovered the evidence anyway by legal means. The burden is on the police to prove that they
would in fact have discovered the evidence lawfully even if they had not acted illegally.