Police Officer Blumpkin saw Xavier run a stop sign. Officer Blumpkin had probable cause a traffic violation had just occurred, so he flashed his lights and pulled Xavier over. As the officer was checking Xavier's driver license's validity, the computer system in the police car stated Xavier had an active warrant for his arrest. Officer Blumpkin arrested Xavier aNd patted him down for weapons. He found 10g of cocaine, which is a felony, in Xavier's car. The following day, Xavier was presented before a judge who discovered the computer system had incorrectly attributed a warrant to Xavier, thus making the arrest an illegal mistake. However, because of the doctrine __________, the arrest of Xavier will stand valid and the evidence will still be used against him. The computer's error led the officer into error and it is thus not his fault.

Question

a
Good faith
b
Inevitable discovery
c
Exclusionary rule
d
Fruit of the poisoned tree

Answer 1

The correct answer is a. Good faith.

The good faith doctrine allows an officer's belief in the existence of probable cause (even if later proven to be erroneous) to validate an arrest and any evidence obtained during that arrest. In this case, since Officer Blumpkin acted on information from the computer system believing there was a valid warrant, the good faith exception applies, thus the arrest and subsequent evidence (the cocaine) may still be admissible.