State v. Novembrino

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

STEIN, J.

Since 1961, when the United States Supreme Court decided Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081, New Jersey and her sister states have been compelled by the federal constitution to exclude from the State’s case-in-ehief evidence obtained in violation of the fourth amendment. The so-called “exclusionary rule” has been applied in federal criminal cases since 1914 when the rule was first adopted to protect the rights secured by the fourth amendment.1 Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 34 S.Ct. 341, 58 L.Ed. 652. Justice Day,…