2.2.4 The Impact
When multiple defendants are tried together, some may make motions to suppress evidence prior to the trial. If one person has standing and can properly assert the exclusionary rule, she may be able to have the charge against her dismissed because of a lack of substantial, lawfully obtained evidence. If a codefendant lacks a sufficient privacy interest—standing—the codefendant will see his motion to exclude denied. He may then be convicted in large part because of the precise item of evidence earlier excluded. Without standing, the defendant simply cannot raise the Fourth Amendment argument.
While the Court has chosen to phrase the issue in Fourth Amendment terms,56 the central question that remains is one that is found throughout our justice system: Does this individual have a sufficient privacy interest to assert the legal claim?57 As the Supreme Court explained more than forty years ago, "[t]he established...
