Spence

This case presents the question whether the exclusionary rule should apply to a probation search conducted by police officers in reliance on a probation roster that, by design, omitted information concerning judicially imposed limitations on the authority to conduct a probation search.

A judge may grant probation conditioned on a defendant's consent to warrantless searches. On occasion, a judge may limit the scope of the defendant's consent to searches for particular contraband, such as drugs or stolen property. Here, defendant consented solely to searches for stolen property as a condition of his probation. The probation department provided to a law enforcement agency a computer generated roster of probationers subject to search conditions. The roster's design omitted any limitations on the scope of the probationer's consent, and thus did not reflect that the scope of defendant's consent was limited to searches for stolen property. Relying on this incomplete roster, police officers searched defendant's residence for drugs, believing that his consent was without limitation.

The Attorney General argues that this case involves the good faith exception to the…