Also known as: attenuate the taint · attenuates the taint · attenuating the taint · attenuation of the taint · attenuation doctrine · taint attenuation
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A doctrine in criminal procedure under which evidence obtained after unlawful police conduct remains admissible. Intervening circumstances such as the discovery of a valid preexisting arrest warrant break the causal chain between the constitutional violation and the evidence when the officer's misconduct was at most negligent and not purposeful or flagrant.
Officer Lewis stopped Anita Ali near a factory loading dock solely because she carried a bulky duffel bag. Dispatch reported a preexisting warrant for a missed child-support hearing. Lewis arrested Ali on the warrant and found methamphetamine in her car during a search incident to arrest. The court admitted the drugs because the valid warrant served as an intervening circumstance that attenuated the taint of the unlawful stop.
Police arrested Alfred Ashford without probable cause and took him to the station. After receiving Miranda warnings Ashford confessed to a robbery. The court suppressed the confession because the close temporal proximity to the unlawful arrest and the absence of any intervening circumstance left the taint intact.
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Officers entered Alice Atkins's apartment without a warrant and remained inside. Hours later they obtained a valid search warrant based on information gathered before the entry. The court admitted evidence found under the warrant because the valid warrant and the officers' merely negligent conduct constituted intervening circumstances that attenuated the taint of the initial unlawful entry.
A park ranger stopped Anika Anand's vehicle solely to verify permits. The ranger ran Anand's license and discovered a preexisting warrant for an old protest charge. After arresting Anand the ranger found illegal mushrooms in the car. The court admitted the evidence because the warrant attenuated the taint of the suspicionless stop.
Officers detained Andrew Avery for questioning without probable cause and transported him to the station. Avery made incriminating statements after receiving Miranda warnings. The court suppressed the statements because the detention was illegal and the warnings alone did not attenuate the taint.
Courts examine the temporal proximity between the illegality and the discovery of evidence, the presence of intervening circumstances, and the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct.
Yes when the warrant is unconnected to the stop, the officer's conduct was at most negligent, and there is no purposeful or flagrant violation. The warrant then constitutes an intervening circumstance that breaks the causal chain.
No. Temporal proximity is only one factor. A strong intervening circumstance such as a valid preexisting warrant can outweigh close timing when the officer's misconduct was merely negligent.
Purposeful or flagrant misconduct such as a systematic policy of suspicionless stops weighs strongly against attenuation and favors suppression.
…that the record is adequate to allow us to rule on the major issue — whether advice of Miranda rights constitutes a per se attenuation of the taint of an illegal arrest in all cases. I do not agree, however, that the record is adequate for the Court to rule, in addition, that there was insufficient attenuation of taint in this…