Legal Accuracy
Although the evidentiary law of the movie was accurate at the time the movie was produced, several evidentiary rules used in the movie have since been overturned by subsequent court rulings. Under California law during the events of the movie, the police did not have the authority to search garbage; this was overruled in California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35 (1988), in which the United States Supreme Court ruled no reasonable expectation of privacy exists in a trashcan placed outside of a residence. Although the movie accurately reflects the law at the time it was released in 1983, Greenwood later invalidated that particular legal underpinning.
The evidentiary ruling by Hardin concerning the police officers' reliance upon Department of Motor Vehicles records that were out-of-date was also correct at the time of the movie's events but has since been overturned by the United States Supreme Court. In United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984), the Court carved out an exception to the exclusionary rule where a police officer relies on invalid information but does so in good faith. In Arizona v. Evans, 514 U.S. 1 (1995), the Court ruled that evidence seized as a result of incorrect motor vehicle records is still admissible.
Read more about this topic: The Star Chamber
Famous quotes containing the words legal and/or accuracy:
“There are ... two minimum conditions necessary and sufficient for the existence of a legal system. On the one hand those rules of behavior which are valid according to the system’s ultimate criteria of validity must be generally obeyed, and on the other hand, its rules of recognition specifying the criteria of legal validity and its rules of change and adjudication must be effectively accepted as common public standards of official behavior by its officials.”
—H.L.A. (Herbert Lionel Adolphus)
“As for farming, I am convinced that my genius dates from an older era than the agricultural. I would at least strike my spade into the earth with such careless freedom but accuracy as the woodpecker his bill into a tree.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)