State v. Hess

¶ 1. Wisconsin adopted a good faith exception to the exclusionary rule in State v. Eason, 2001 WI 98, ¶ 74, 245 Wis. 2d 206, 629 N.W.2d 625. When people close to the criminal law discuss this exception, they speak of a scenario where law enforcement officers seek to do something, get judicial approval to do it (a warrant), and act in good faith reliance on that judicial approval. In that scenario, the good faith exception provides that law enforcement's reliance will not come back to haunt them if there was a procedural error. Generally this means that courts will admit evidence even if the…