Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
The reason why I bring these up is not because these movies reflect reality, it is because they reflect the publics perception of reality. My statement that the exclusionary rule diminshes people confidence in the criminal justice was questioned.
When it comes to peoples opinions about the criminal justice system you are not talking about facts you are talking about people's perceptions.
Most people see our criminal justice system as screwed up, and most of the gripes revlolve around the exclusionary rule. Of course they don't know they are talking about the exclusionary rule, they just refer to it as evidence being excluded because of technicalities.
This disrepsect of the criminal justice caused by the exclusionary rule is pervasive throughout the popular culture and you would have to be blind not to see it.
The Star Chamber (Michael Douglas) was completely focused on the exclusionary rule.
In regards to Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson you have a poor memory. Just off the top of my head, in one dirty harry movie Clint Eastwood threatens the bad guy until he tells Eastwood the location of the girl he kidnapped and was torturing to death. They find the girl where he said she was but she was dead. But the guy gets to walk because none of the evidence surrounding the girl could be introduced as evidence.
The entire of plot of the Dirty Harry movie where the rookie cops (Mr. "Don't give up on us baby" is one of them) are dispensing justice on their own terms revlolves around cleary guilty criminals getting off because of the exclusionary rule.
The list goes on and on.......
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Uh, have you seen a movie in, say, the last 15 or 20 years? I realize that Republicans don't like Hollywood these days, but this is sort of ridiculous.
Most lawyers in movies break some rule of professional ethics, up to and including Atticus Finch. And our clients watch those movies and think that's what good lawyering is. That doesn't mean that we, as as a profession, are off the hook from those rules, even if they prevent us from doing the best for our client.
