Also known as: fruits of crime · fruit of the crime · instrumentalities of crime · instrumentality of crime · fruits and instrumentalities
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Property connected to criminal activity because it is the direct product of the offense or a tool employed to perpetrate it. Such items may be seized pursuant to a warrant when probable cause establishes the required nexus to the suspected crime.
Federal agents obtained a warrant to search Bob's retail store after a confidential informant reported that Bob was buying stolen phones and altering their serial numbers in the back room. Officers seized the entire electronics inventory because many devices matched the description of fruits of crime. Bob later moved to suppress the seizure on the ground that some phones were lawfully sourced.
An attorney removed stolen cash and a weapon from a client's home and placed them in a new safe deposit box. Law enforcement later discovered the items and charged the attorney with obstruction. The court held that the privilege did not protect the physical items because they were fruits and instrumentalities of the client's crime.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Police obtained a warrant to search the Stanford Daily newsroom for photographs and notes taken during a campus protest that turned violent. The items sought were evidence and potential instrumentalities connected to the offenses under investigation. The newspaper challenged the warrant as overbroad.
Officers entered Payton's apartment without a warrant and seized a .32-caliber shell casing and other items they believed were fruits of a homicide. The items were later introduced at trial. Payton argued that the seizure violated the Fourth Amendment because no warrant authorized the entry.
A housing inspector applied for a warrant to enter an apartment building to check for code violations. The application described the need for periodic inspections rather than probable cause to believe specific fruits or instrumentalities of crime would be found. The building owner challenged the warrant standard.
New York enacted a statute requiring that profits from books describing a crime be placed in escrow for crime victims. A publisher challenged the law as an unconstitutional restriction on speech. The statute treated the profits as fruits of crime subject to forfeiture.
A federal search warrant may authorize seizure of evidence of a crime, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed, and property designed for use, intended for use, or used in committing a crime.
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No. The privilege protects only communications. Physical fruits or instrumentalities of crime remain subject to seizure and the attorney may face criminal liability or sanctions for obstructing access to them.
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Yes, when probable cause establishes that a substantial portion of the commingled property constitutes contraband or fruits of crime, a warrant may lawfully extend to the entire collection to prevent criminals from shielding illegal items by mixing them with lawful goods.
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Yes. A warrant may issue for evidence of a crime even when the items are not contraband or fruits of crime, provided they are described with particularity and probable cause links them to the suspected offense.
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…conditions. For example, whereas the kinds of property subject to seizure under warrants had been limited to contraband and the fruits or instrumentalities of crime, see Gouled v. United States , 255 U. S. 298, 309, the category of property that may be seized, consistent with the Fourth Amendment, has been expanded to include mere evidence. Warden…