School Essay: United States v. Leon Et Al. Decided July 5, 1984

United States

v.

Leon Et Al. Decided July 5, 1984

(Cite as:468 U.S. 897)

Facts: Officers of Burbank, CA Police Department commenced a drug-trafficking investigation, based on the information of a confidential informant, that involved the surveillance of the respondents' activities (United States v. Leon - 468 U.S. 897 (1984)).  Based upon a summarizing affidavit of the officer's observations, an application for a warrant to search three residents and the owners vehicles was put together by Officer Rombach and reviewed by a number of Deputy District Attorneys where a state court judge issued a valid search warrant (United States v. Leon - 468 U.S. 897 (1984)).  With this warrant, the following searches found large amounts of drugs and other evidence therefore, the respondents' were charged with federal drug offenses who, in return, filed motions to suppress the evidence that was seized under the warrant (United States v. Leon - 468 U.S. 897 (1984)).  The district court granted the respondents' motions to dismiss partly because the affidavit did not supply sufficient probable cause, however, the court did recognize that Officer Romback had acted in good faith, but "the court rejected the Government's suggestion that the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule should not apply where evidence seized in reasonable, good faith reliance on a search warrant" (United States v. Leon - 468 U.S. 897 (1984)).  The Court of Appeals agreed as well and affirmed, refusing to budge on the Government's request to identify a good faith exception to the rule. 

Issue: The issue in this case is whether the evidence obtained under the issued search warrant, that was issued by a neutral and detached judge, should be excluded due to the warrant ultimately being found unsupported by probable cause (United States v. Leon - 468 U.S. 897 (1984))?

Holding: It was acknowledged by the Supreme Court that the police used an invalid search warrant to obtain their evidence against Leon but the court ruled against Leon by permitting a good faith exception to the exclusionary rule saying that "the exclusionary rule can be modified somewhat without jeopardizing its ability to perform its intended functions" (United States v. Leon - 468 U.S. 897 (1984)).  The majority opinion was filed by Justice Byron White who answered the above question with a resounding no, explaining that "only when a warrant is grounded upon an affidavit knowingly or recklessly false has the Supreme Court of the United States suppressed the evidence obtained as a result" (United States v. Leon, 2013).  The aforementioned reference goes on to point out that "the exclusionary rule is designed to deter police misconduct rather to punish magistrates and judges for their errors; there exists no evidence that judges and magistrates are inclined to ignore the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and that their actions would require the ultimate sanction of exclusion; there is no evidence that suppression of evidence obtained under a search warrant will have any deterrent effect upon judges and magistrates" (United States v. Leon, 2013).

          To conclude, the decision of this case lessened the exclusionary rule protections under the 4th Amendment of the Constitution which made many law enforcement official content about the decision because of their often felt dissatisfaction of judicial decisions that allowed a criminal to avoid conviction because of a technical mistake by the police (United States v. Leon - 468 U.S. 897 (1984)).  On the other hand, those who are committed to 4th Amendment rights, cried foul against any exceptions to the exclusionary rule (United States v. Leon - 468 U.S. 897 (1984)). 

Works Cited

United States v. Leon - 468 U.S. 897 (1984). (n.d.). Retrieved 03 23, 2013, from Justia.com US Supreme Court Center: http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/468/897/case.html

United States v. Leon. (2013). Retrieved 03 23, 2013, from Case Briefs: http://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/criminal-procedure/criminal-procedure-keyed-to-weinreb/the-fourth-amendment-arrest-and-search-and-seizure/united-states-v-leon-4/2/