Law Commons^™

The Need To Overrule Mapp V. Ohio, William T. Pizzi

William T. Pizzi

This Article argues that it is time to overrule Mapp v. Ohio. It contends, first of all, that a tough deterrent sanction is difficult to reconcile with a system where victims are increasingly seen to have a stake in criminal cases. Secondly, the Article maintains that a tough exclusionary sanction is also inappropriate given what police are asked to do on the street and the fact that concepts such as probable cause or reasonable suspicion are inevitably matters of judgment on which opinions will differ. Thirdly, the Article challenges one of the Court’s main epistemological assumptions, namely, the insistence that …