What is a motion to suppress?
. Under the U.S. Constitution you are entitled to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. The same is true under the New Jersey constitution. However, persons in New Jersey have a much greater right to be free of these searches than a person has in Federal Court because New Jersey gives greater protection. The police cannot simply search the interior of a car in New Jersey. The police cannot even require the passenger to get out of the car in New Jersey unless the police have probable cause to believe the passenger is committing a crime. The police cannot search if the warrant is defective, even if they have a good faith belief that the warrant is proper. Motions to suppress evidence illegally seized can be crucial, particularly in drug crimes. If the drugs have been suppressed, the State cannot prosecute you for the drug crime. Motions to suppress can be crucial in other crimes as well, such as murder, burglary, theft, etc., since if the State cannot use the evidence it may n
A motion to suppress is a legal document filed by your defense attorney which alleges that evidence relied upon by the State was obtained illegally and should not be used by the prosecutor in their case in chief. The filing of such a motion shifts the burden to the State to prove that police officers did not violate their client’s constitutional rights. Failure by the State to meet this burden will render that evidence inadmissible. This means that the State will not be able to present such evidence in their case in chief and will quite literally have to ignore or pretend that it never existed. A successful motion to suppress can severely weaken the State’s case and often leads to a voluntary dismissal of the charges by the Assistant State Attorney. Under the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, counsel for defendant unjustly subjected to an unlawful search and seizure may ask the court to suppress evidence obtained during such an act. A request for suppression of such evidence may be
