Can You Resist Unlawful Arrest In Texas ?

In State v. Mayorga, 901 S.W.2d 943 (Tex. Crim. App. 1995), Mayorga was charged with resisting arrest. 901 S.W.2d 943 (Tex. Crim. App. 1995). She sought to suppress the evidence of her resistance because the arrest which she resisted was unlawful. Id. at 944. (The officers were attempting to arrest her for outstanding warrants, but no outstanding warrants actually existed.) The Court of Criminal Appeals held that where officers arrest a person based on objectively reasonable information, and that person resists arrest, the evidence of the resistance is not obtained in violation of the law as article 38.23 contemplates, and therefore, the exclusionary rule is not applicable. See id. at 946. The Court quoted the following explanation offered by the lower court: When a defendant [resists] at the time and place of arrest, the evidence of resistance comes into existence contemporaneously with the officer's attempt to arrest him. Because the evidence does not exist prior to the illegal arrest and may never exist, the police cannot suspect its existence and arrest a defendant for the purpose of gaining the evidence. The police correspondingly cannot foresee getting the evidence as a consequence of their actions; their decision to arrest cannot be motivated by the possible acquisition and use of evidence. Absent other facts inculpating the police conduct, the evidence of resisting arrest simply does not come into existence at a time and place or under circumstances to be within the field of exploitation.Id. The State did nothing wrong in Mayorga. The focus of the decision was on the objective reasonableness of the police officers' conduct and the absence of any ability of the officers to foresee obtaining evidence as a consequence of their actions.