
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 2, 1995                   TAG: 9503020063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

HIGH COURT ADMITS EVIDENCE

Unlawful arrests based on computer errors don't always require throwing out evidence seized by police, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

In a case pitting computer-age police work against privacy rights, the court said such glitches - if caused by court employees and not police - are ``good faith'' exceptions to its rule generally excluding illegally seized evidence from criminal trials.

The 7-2 decision means Arizona prosecutors may get to use as evidence the marijuana seized from Isaac Evans' car. The Phoenix man was arrested in 1991 only because a police computer wrongly listed an outstanding warrant against him.

Evans was stopped for a traffic violation and arrested by police after a computer record showed an outstanding arrest warrant for some traffic citations. In fact, the warrant had been dropped 17 days earlier.

The Arizona Supreme Court had ruled that the seized marijuana could not be used as trial evidence against Evans. But the state court never determined whether police officers or court employees were responsible for the outdated computer information.

Writing for the court, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said excluding evidence due to errors by anyone but police doesn't serve the 81-year-old rule's purpose of deterring police misconduct.

Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented.

by CNB