Using 100 words or more, please discuss the legal concepts applicable to fraud for the following post. Be sure to proofread and use references.
The article I chose to write about is the recent New Jersey vs. Terry (2014). The case in the supreme court was whether the State intercepted conversations and text messages between and husband and wife in lieu of a court ordered wiretap. This was an issue due to a communications act were husband and wife can communicate with out being monitored. This was a marital privilege. A second issue was brought up in this case was whether New Jersey should adopt a crime-fraud exception to the marital communications privilege. In the fall of 2010, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office was investigating Teron Savoy who is the alleged leader of a drug trafficking network. As part of the investigation, the State obtained court orders under the New Jersey Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act authorizing wiretaps of two cell phones Savoy used. It is noteworthy to mention this was among many hours of interceptions, the State recorded two or three phone calls and intercepted five text messages between Savoy and his wife Yolanda Terry. In those communications, Savoy asked Terry to pick up money from co-defendant Chardel Holman.
The State alleged that Savoy had previously fronted heroin to Holman. In a detailed oral opinion, the trial judge denied the motion to suppress the conversations. The court found that the conversations were admissible at trial because any confidential communication would be disclosed by a third party, and not a spouse. The adjudication had discussed the crime-fraud exception to the marital communications privilege, which many federal and state courts have adopted, and concluded that “any communication made in this case in furtherance of drug trafficking is not worthy of protection.” Defendants appealed. In a published opinion, the Appellate Division reversed. The panel determined that under Rule 509 and the Wiretap Act, the communications in question were protected. In addition, the panel noted that strong public policy concerns supported applying a crime-fraud exception to the marital communications privilege.
The Supreme Court affirmed the Appellate Division: “A confidential marital communication protected under the marital communications privilege does not lose its privileged status by virtue of a wiretap under the New Jersey Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act.” The Court, however, proposed a crime-fraud exception to the marital communications privilege and, pursuant to the Evidence Act of 1960, sent it for approval by a joint resolution of the Legislature and for the Despite the ruing I feel that it should have been an exception instead of filing an appeal or trying to attempt to make it sustainable because of the fact crime was being organized through a husband and wife. I feel that It needs to be an exception due to the potential abuse of this privilege. I guarantee most would take advantage of this and use it to organize their crime.
The Federal Rules of Evidence are a set of rules that governs the introduction of evidence at civil and criminal trials in United States federal trial courts. The current rules were initially passed by Congress in 1975, after several years of drafting by the Supreme Court. Review below for the following rules of evidence
General Provisions
Judicial Notice
Presumptions in Civil Actions and Proceedings
Relevancy and Its Limits
Privileges
Witnesses
Opinions and Expert Testimony
Hearsay
Authentication and Identification
Contents of Writings, Recordings, and Photographs
Miscellaneous Rules-
References
(2017). Federal Rules of Evidence: 2017 Edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Michigan Legal Publishing, Ltd.
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