The Constable Has Blundered: The Exclusionary Rule, Crime, and Corruption

The Constable Has Blundered: The Exclusionary Rule, Crime, and Corruption examines and explains how the exclusionary rule undermines the purposes of the criminal justice system, increases crime rates, dispenses unequal justice, and encourages police corruption. Professor Signorelli uses concrete examples and cases to demonstrate the connections between the rule and its problematic consequences. The book explains how unequal treatment of defendants, denial of justice to crime victims, and perjury by police officers to circumvent the rule taint the criminal justice system, and how a tainted justice system spreads ill effects throughout society. Recent Supreme Court decisions have limited the application of the rule, and some legal scholars have been predicting that the Court is close to overturning the rule. The author makes a strong case for eliminating the rule or severely restricting its application, and at the same time, he shows how other remedies work more effectively to deter police from violating constitutional rights pertaining to search and seizure and interrogation practices.