James v. Illinois

Justice Kennedy,

with whom The Chief Justice, Justice O’Connor, and Justice ScALiAjoin, dissenting.

To deprive the prosecution of probative evidence acquired in violation of the law may be a tolerable and necessary cost of the exclusionary rule. Implementation of the rule requires us to draw certain lines to effect its purpose of deterring unlawful conduct. But the line drawn by today’s opinion grants the defense side in a criminal case broad immunity to introduce whatever false testimony it can produce from the mouth of a friendly witness. Unless petitioner’s conviction is reversed, we are…