The American Decisions Vol 53 PDF Download

Excerpt from The American State Reports, Vol. 53: Containing the Cases of General Value and Authority Subsequent to Those Contained in the "American Decisions" And the American Reports," Decided in the Courts of Last Resort of the Several States While it is true the search of the defendant was without legal justification, a trespass, and an indictable misdemeanor, we know of no principle or theory upon which the state may be deprived of the right to employ the evidence of a criminal offense thus obtained. As is observed by the supreme court of Illinois, in Gindrat v. People, 138 111. 111: Courts, in the administration of a the criminal law, are not accustomed to be over-sensitive in re gard to the sources from which evidence comes, and will avail themselves of all evidence that is competent and pertinent, and not subversive of some constitutional or legal right. The state had no connection with, and had no agency in, the wrong oom mitted by the sheriff. The law appoints the remedy for the re dress of the wrong, but the exclusion of the evidence criminating the defendant is not within the scope of the remedy, or the meas ure of redress. Evidence is not infrequently obtained by meth ods which are reprehensible in good morals, offensive to fair deal ing, subjecting it to unfavorable inferences, the party relying upon it must neutralize to entitle it to full credence. And evi dence is sometimes obtained under circumstances which meet with the unqualified disapprobation of the courts. The evidence, however unfairly and illegally obtained, is not subject to exclu sion, if it be of facts in themselves relevant, except when a party accused of crime has been compelled to do some positive afirma tive act inculpating himself; or an admission or confession has been extorted from him by force or drawn from him by appli ances to his hepes or fears: 1 Greenleaf on Evidence, sec, 254 a; Commonwealth v. Dana, 2 Met. 329-37; State v. Flynn, 36 N. H. 64; Gindrat v. People, 138 Ill. 111. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.