State v. Gervasio

I admire the majority’s tenacity but not its theory in clinging to its holding in State v. Carpentieri, 82 N.J. 546 (1980). Just three years ago this Court foreswore as necessary to its theory of retroactivity that Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979), represented a “sharp break” with the past. It wrote that “it is of no moment whether the Prouse *34decision in fact represents a ‘sharp break’ with existing law or is nothing more than a logical development following almost inevitably from earlier exclusionary rule decisions.” 82 N.J. at 551.

In its view, then,…