378
Souter, J., dissenting
ment issues as the police, who are necessarily charged with responsibility for the legality of warrantless arrests, investigatory stops, and searches.2
As to the benefit of an exclusionary rule in revocation proceedings, the majority does not see that in the investigation of criminal conduct by someone known to be on parole, Fourth Amendment standards will have very little deterrent sanction unless evidence offered for parole revocation is subject to suppression for unconstitutional conduct. It is not merely that parole revocation is the government's consolation prize when, for whatever reason, it cannot obtain a further criminal conviction, though that will sometimes be true. See, e. g., State ex rel. Wright v. Ohio Adult Parole Auth., 75 Ohio St. 3d, at 83-89, 661 N. E. 2d, at 730 (State sought revocation of parole when criminal prosecution was dismissed for insufficient evidence after defendant's motion to suppress was successful); Anderson v. Virginia, 20 Va. App. 361, 363-364, 457 S. E. 2d 396, 397 (1995) (same); Chase v. Maryland, 309 Md. 224, 228, 522 A. 2d 1348, 1350 (1987) (same); Gronski v. Wyoming, 700 P. 2d 777, 778 (Wyo. 1985) (same). What is at least equally telling is that parole revocation will frequently be pursued instead of prosecution as the course of choice, a fact recognized a quarter of a century
2 On the subject of cost, the majority also argues that the cost of applying the exclusionary rule to revocation proceedings would be high because States have an " 'overwhelming interest' " in ensuring that its parolees comply with the conditions of their parole, given the fact that parolees are more likely to commit future crimes than average citizens. Ante, at 365. I certainly do not contest the fact, but merely point out that it does not differentiate suppression at parole hearings from suppression at trials, where suppression of illegally obtained evidence in the prosecution's case in chief certainly takes some toll on the State's interest in convicting criminals in the first place. The majority's argument suggests not that the exclusionary rule is necessarily out of place in parole revocation proceedings, but that States should be permitted to condition parole on an agreement to submit to warrantless, suspicionless searches, on the possibility of which this case has no bearing. See infra, at 379-380.
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