[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] decided two cases Wednesday. The Court ruled [opinion, PDF] 5-4 in Herring v. United States [Cornell LII backgrounder; JURIST report] that evidence seized during a search incident to an arrest does not have to be suppressed when the sole premise for the arrest was information later found to be negligently provided by another law enforcement agency. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the Court. Roberts held:

[In circumstances where] an officer reasonably believes there is an out-standing arrest warrant, but that belief turns out to be wrong because of a negligent bookkeeping error by an-other police employee ... the jury should not be barred from considering all the evidence.

The jury-trial right is best honored through a "principled rationale" that applies the rule of the Apprendi cases "within the central sphere of their concern." Our disposition today — upholding an Oregon statute that assigns to judges a decision that has not traditionally belonged to the jury — is faithful to that aim. [citations omitted]

The rule of Apprendi v. New Jersey is clear: Any fact — other than that of a prior conviction — that increases the maximum punishment to which a defendant may be sentenced must be admitted by the defendant or proved beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury. Oregon’s sentencing scheme allows judges rather than juries to find the facts necessary to commit defendants to longer prison sentences, and thus directly contradicts what we held eight years ago and have reaffirmed several times since.