venecol
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You are saying that cops can illegally tape or video record an act or conversation, try to use the illegal recording to charge you with a crime, but when illegal recording gets thrown out, the cops can just turn it over to media because of FL disclosure laws?I've seen a bunch of people here saying that, and while it may well turn out to be true, I wouldn't assume it to be true just because.
Evidence being suppressed at a criminal trial is done in order to prevent a 4th amendment violation in the process of prosecuting the defendant. But being suppressed for that reason has no intrinsic linkage to not being a public record. The point of a public record is to promote transparency by allowing the public to see information their government is generating/collecting/using. That is a completely distinct purpose from the purpose of evidence in a trial. So it doesn't follow that not allowing it for one purpose (evidence in a trial) means it is not allowed for another purpose (governmental transparency). That said, it's certainly possible that the FL public records law specifically designates suppressed evidence as not a public record.
So it would be interesting to see if any articles (especially in the Florida papers) have touched on this specific point, especially if there are quotes for lawyer types not involved in the case.
Damn that would be some fv*ked up **** if FL law allows such a thing.