Ruling on prison taping phone calls between inmate and attorney

[northstar]

Judge: Taping inmate's phone calls violated rights
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...f.339ffc5.html


Hunt County: But he won't dismiss murder charges over calls with attorney
10:28 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 18, 2007


By RICHARD ABSHIRE / The Dallas Morning News
rabshire@dallasnews.com
A state district judge ruled Tuesday that Brandon Woodruff's constitutional rights were violated and that some evidence should be suppressed because jailhouse phone calls between Mr. Woodruff and his attorney were recorded and shared with prosecutors.

[Guinevere]

Proof positive that you can't get a fair trial in TX.

[biglinmarshall]

Well, I suppose it depends. If it was a marginal case, the judge would probably have had no option but to throw it out. If the evidence was strong he'd probably feel the prosecution didn't need the information from the tapping.

What I do say is that the people who did the tapping should be put under arrest themselves.

[Chillinchuck]

The evidence from the illegal wiretap was seized illegally, so it won't be admitted. The people who conducted the illegal wiretap can only be prosecuted if it can be proven they were acting in bad faith. I'm not saying that's not what happened, but it would be difficult to prove.

cc