How Can I Contest Illegal Evidence in New Jersey Courts?

The U.S. Constitution protects your right to “be secure in” your things and papers and it protects personal autonomy. For the government to intrude on this by searching you, seizing your things, or seizing you (arresting you), they need to go through certain hurdles, or else their searches or arrests are illegal. When that happens, there is one major way to contest the illegal evidence.

If the police seize evidence or arrest you in violation of your constitutional rights, the court is supposed to “suppress” the evidence. This is the penalty that police face for violating your rights, and it means that the police and prosecutors cannot use the evidence in the case against you. This is a pretty simple remedy, but how to use it, what it does, and when it works (and doesn’t work) are important factors to understand.

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Suppressing Illegal Evidence in New Jersey Court Cases

If the police seized evidence in violation of the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, then it can be “suppressed.” This remedy was created to help deter police from violating the 4th Amendment, as there was no way to sue them for violations at the time. Today, you can also file a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, but that is a separate remedy meant only to pay you damages for violations of your rights, and doctrines like qualified immunity often make it hard to win those cases. Even so, suppression is regularly available in criminal cases to help protect defendants from illegal evidence.

To request that evidence be suppressed, your Burlington, NJ criminal defense lawyers can file a motion with the court that your case is before. Judges will hold suppression hearings where both sides will present their alleged facts about how the evidence was obtained, as well as arguments about why it should or should not be suppressed. If the court rules in your favor, the evidence is thrown out, and the police and prosecutors cannot talk about it in your criminal case.

What this often means is that the prosecution has to handle their case with one hand tied behind their back, metaphorically. The evidence that was suppressed might have been incredibly important – a literal smoking gun, even. However, the fact that the police broke the law to get it makes it unavailable to them.

Why Do We Use Suppression in NJ Criminal Cases with Illegal Evidence?

As mentioned, suppression is the remedy instead of something like monetary damages. There are two major reasons for using this system.

First, it blocks illegal evidence so that the police and prosecution cannot benefit from violating your rights. The justice system is supposed to be fair, and obtaining evidence by breaking the law is not particularly fair. If you break the law, they arrest you and punish you; it would be unfair if they broke the law and were rewarded with a win in court.

Second, it deters police and prosecutors from seizing evidence illegally. If police know that the evidence will be blocked from court if they gather it the wrong way, then it pushes them to do everything they are supposed to do correctly in order to protect their evidence. This helps push them to respect your rights or else risk losing the case against you.

When Evidence Suppression Does and Doesn’t Work for New Jersey Criminal Cases Involving Illegally Obtained Evidence

As with any criminal law issue, there have been cases testing the outer limits of these rules. In the end, we end up with a lot of different rules governing when suppression can apply because of a rights violation and when the government’s violation doesn’t hurt their case. The following situations all have special rules about whether suppression will or will not be available.

Warrantless Searches

The 4th Amendment requires a warrant for searches. This means that police have to go before a judge/magistrate and submit an affidavit under oath explaining their rationale for wanting to perform a search or arrest a person. This has to be supported with “probable cause” explaining that they believe a crime has been committed and that evidence will be found in the place to be searched – or that the person to be arrested was responsible.

If a search or arrest is performed without a warrant, it would be illegal. However, getting a warrant is not always possible, so the courts have created many exceptions to this requirement. For example, if the officer witnesses the crime happen before their eyes, they do not usually need to leave and get a warrant and risk losing the suspect. As another example, they can also enter your home without a warrant if they think that evidence is being destroyed or that someone is in danger.

Additionally, the “plain view” doctrine allows police to seize evidence or contraband they can see from a legal vantage point without needing a warrant.

Violations of Someone Else’s Rights

Suppression is only available if the defendant’s rights were violated, not if someone else’s rights were violated. For example, let’s say that you had a brick of cocaine hidden at a friend’s house. If the police broke down your friend’s door and searched his house without permission, it would not violate your rights, but rather your friend’s rights. That might make suppression unavailable in your criminal case.

Mix of Legal and Illegal Evidence

Sometimes when police seize evidence illegally, they get evidence they could otherwise seize legally mixed in, or vice versa. In some cases, courts will need to hold suppression hearings to piece out what was obtained legally and what was obtained illegally. Sometimes, when illegal evidence leads to more evidence, the fact that there was an illegal search or seizure further back down the line makes any “fruits” of that illegal evidence also illegal. This is called the “fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine, and it should make anything downstream of an illegal seizure also illegal, allowing it to be suppressed, too.

For example, if the police arrest you without probable cause, then search you and find drugs, that happened because of an illegal arrest. Therefore, the arrest and the drugs it turned up should both be suppressed.