In what circumstances have the courts permitted the admission of statements from a defendant to police as evidence for impeachment purposes?

In Walder v. United States (1954) 347 U.S. 62, 74 S.Ct. 354, 98 L.Ed. 503 (Walder ), the high court permitted physical evidence, earlier excluded on Fourth Amendment grounds, to be used for impeachment purposes where the defendant testified, inconsistently with the evidence seized, that he had never purchased, sold or possessed any narcotics. The high court concluded that the evidence had been properly admitted: "It is one thing to say that the Government cannot make an affirmative use of evidence unlawfully obtained. It is quite another to say that the defendant can turn the illegal method by which evidence in the Government's possession was obtained to his own advantage, and provide himself with a shield against contradiction of his untruths." (Id . at p. 65, 74 S.Ct. 354.) The high court explained that a contrary conclusion "would be a perversion of the Fourth Amendment" because "there is hardly justification for letting the defendant affirmatively resort to perjurious testimony in reliance on the Government's disability to challenge his credibility." (Ibid . )

In Harris v. New York (1971) 401 U.S. 222, 91 S.Ct. 643, 28 L.Ed.2d 1, the high court permitted the admission of a defendant's statements to police,

[3 Cal.5th 464]