On the recordFebruary 8, 1995
Let me try to give a primer on this. As far as the exclusionary rule, that is a judicial court creation. It appears nowhere in the Constitution. We have heard that bantered about in our arguments, that it violated the Constitution, what our forefathers wrote, those kinds of things. Actually, it is a rule that was crafted by the courts to in effect punish police officers for unlawful conduct. And over the years, there has been a constant balancing act between the rights of society as opposed to the rights of the criminal. And over the past number of years, many of us feel that that pendulum has swung too far over in favor of the rights of the criminal and, in some cases, has actually resulted in the exclusionary rule being applied in trials that guilty people have gone free or, even before that, you recognized you have got a bad case because of this. You would have to plea bargain out or even dismiss a case.
Source
govinfo.gov
