12-01-2020, 10:36 PM
Don’t confuse the US system for ours. We’ve all seen shows where whole prosecutions fail because 1 breach of the suspect’s rights leads to all other evidence being thrown out as fruit of the poisoned tree.
In Australia, very few types of evidence are excluded automatically. Some examples are illegal telephone intercepts and confessions that were given involuntarily. And their exclusion usually doesn’t flow down the line to other evidence.
Then you have cases where evidence needs to be gathered according to strict guidelines; for example, the prosecution needs to prove the chain of custody of drugs seized or a DNA lab needs to show they took appropriate steps to prevent cross-contamination. Do you really think these are just “technicalities”? Particularly in the latter case, innocent people have been jailed because of sloppy work.
In Australia, very few types of evidence are excluded automatically. Some examples are illegal telephone intercepts and confessions that were given involuntarily. And their exclusion usually doesn’t flow down the line to other evidence.
Then you have cases where evidence needs to be gathered according to strict guidelines; for example, the prosecution needs to prove the chain of custody of drugs seized or a DNA lab needs to show they took appropriate steps to prevent cross-contamination. Do you really think these are just “technicalities”? Particularly in the latter case, innocent people have been jailed because of sloppy work.