The good faith exception in a computerized society: State court reactions to U.S. v. Leon and Arizona v. Evans

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-1999

Publication Title

The Justice Professional

Abstract

Recent years have observed the advent of powerful, computer‐based record keeping systems that expedite arrests in ways that were never before possible. Following the U.S. Supreme Court's creation of the good faith exception in U.S. v Leon (1984), state and lower federal courts began to apply the exception to cases where officers’ good faith errors were due, inter alia, to computer misinformation, misinformation furnished by probation officers, and misinformation supplied by out‐of‐state law informant agencies. In Arizona v Evans (1995), the Court affirmed the lower courts’ expansion of the good faith exception to the arena of erroneous computer data. This article looks at the application of the exception by the federal and state courts, particularly as it pertains to the realm of good faith mistakes and illegal arrests made pursuant to computer error. The article comments on how distinguishing errors generated by the law enforcement community and mistakes initiated by other governmental actors will become increasingly difficult as computer technology grows and agencies become technologically interdependent, and suggests that the government is in the best position to prevent illegal searches and seizures through training, encouragement of proper record keeping, oversight and development of methods to double‐check the conduct of others responsible for record keeping. The article also concludes that where a distinction is made between the erroneous acts of the law enforcement community and those of other governmental actors, the government should bear the burden of demonstrating that it is not at fault in failing to revise its records or in providing inaccurate information.

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