Oregon v. Klein
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The issue on appeal before the Supreme Court concerned the meaning of "aggrieved person" as that term was used in ORS 133.721(1), the statute that defines the class of persons who may seek suppression of evidence obtained pursuant to an order for a body wire or wiretap. Defendant was charged with various crimes arising from the murder of Asia Bell. Before trial, defendant filed motions to suppress certain evidence intercepted pursuant to a body wire order and a wiretap order. Specifically, through the body-wire order the police had obtained conversations that referred to defendant and indirectly suggested that he was involved in Bell's death. Based on that information, the police obtained the wiretap order, and, through the wiretap, intercepted conversations in which defendant made incriminating statements. The trial court denied defendant's motions to suppress. A jury convicted defendant of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and two counts of attempted aggravated murder. On appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed. It held that defendant could not challenge the body-wire order because he was not an "aggrieved person" within the meaning of ORS 133.721(1). As to the wiretap order, the Court of Appeals acknowledged that defendant was an "aggrieved person" who could challenge that order, but noted that defendant's only argument to exclude the incriminating communications obtained pursuant to that order was that the order was based on information obtained through the allegedly invalid body-wire order. It rejected that argument. The Court of Appeals also rejected defendant's argument that the trial court committed prejudicial error in excluding certain evidence that defendant sought to introduce. Upon review, the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals.
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