Should evidence seized after an unlawful stop be admissible? Utah lawmaker challenges Supreme Court

February 19, 2018 Utah Channel 3

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah lawmaker is proposing to limit the effects of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that bolstered police power to use evidence even if officers did something wrong to get it.

Sponsored by Rep. Brian Greene, R-Pleasant Grove, the legislation – Search and Seizure Amendments, designated HB 392 in the 2018 Legislature – would bar all evidence gathered after an illegal stop. The bill has been criticized by state prosecutors, while a libertarian-leaning group argued it would curtail the potential for police abuse.

The 2016 ruling in question from the U.S. Supreme Court could make police more likely to stop people even if there was no reason to think they were doing anything wrong, Connor Boyack with the Libertas Institute said.

The justices decided a man named Edward Joseph Strieff could be convicted of drug crimes even though officers found methamphetamine after an illegal stop in the city of South Salt Lake.

The divided court found the evidence was legal because there was a warrant out for Strieff’s arrest. The dissenting justices said it was a blow to constitutional rights because officers only found the unpaid traffic citation after stopping him without probable cause.

Greene said Monday that the ruling was troubling. While most police officers respect people’s rights, there is an occasional exception, he said.

“We’ve all heard and seen there are those who would abuse power, and this opens the door for abuse, even if it is in small doses,” he said. “It is not, in my opinion, the direction we want to be going as a free society, to whittle away at our constitutional protections.”

The Utah Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that the plan goes too far.

“It punishes officers’ good-faith efforts to comply with the law. It also unfairly distorts the truth-finding process by suppressing evidence lawfully seized from criminals already subject to arrest,” Solicitor General Tyler Green said. Green successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that the evidence against Strieff was legal because he was arrested on a valid warrant.

“Courts already protect citizens from police abuses by suppressing evidence when officers cheat to get it,” he said.

Greene said the bill would keep state law where it was when the Utah Supreme Court decided that evidence from the Strieff stop could not be used.

“I am somewhat disappointed that the state felt the need to overturn, and successfully overturned, our homegrown jurisprudence,” he said.

As of Tuesday, HB 392 was in the House Rules Committee, but Greene said he expects the bill to have a hearing in the coming days.

Resources

Read the bill: Utah 2018 HB 392 – Search and Seizure Amendments
Contact legislators
- Bill sponsor: Brian Greene
- Southern Utah Sens. Evan Vickers, Don Ipson, David Hinkins and Ralph Okerlund | Listing of all senators.
- Southern Utah Reps. Bradley Last, V. Lowry Snow, Walt Brooks, John Westwood, Merrill Nelson and Michael Noel | Listing of all members of the House of Representatives.

Read more: See all St. George News reports on Utah Legislature 2018 issues