Also known as: fruit of the poisonous tree · fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A doctrine extending the exclusionary rule to bar not only evidence obtained directly through an unconstitutional search or seizure but also evidence derived from that initial illegality.
Environmental officer Dana Cruz secretly placed a sampling device inside ChemTech's locked outfall pipe without a warrant. The agency used only the data from that device to obtain warrants and seize the company's servers and reports. ChemTech moves to suppress the seized records as derivative evidence.
Coast Guard investigator Dana Boyd boarded Harborline Shipping's vessel at night without authority and recorded container numbers. Officials used those numbers to secure warrants that led to discovery of contraband. Harborline moves to suppress the contraband discovered under the later warrants.
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Prosecutors obtained an initial wiretap order on John Farese's telephone and used information from it to secure later orders. Rosner challenges all orders on the ground that the first lacked probable cause. The subsequent evidence is treated as flowing from the initial order.
Detective Leaming urged Williams to reveal the child's location during an improper conversation. Williams contends the body's discovery is the product of that conversation. The state argues the location would have been found through ongoing search efforts.
Officers obtained an initial unwarned statement from the suspect. A later properly warned statement followed. The defense claims the second statement must be excluded because it was induced by the first.
Defendant argues his statements should be suppressed because they followed an arrest he claims lacked probable cause. The court first determines the arrest was supported by probable cause. The fruit argument is rejected on that basis.
No. The doctrine extends the exclusionary rule to any evidence obtained by exploiting an initial constitutional violation, including records, contraband, or data later acquired through warrants based on tainted information.
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A later warrant purges the taint only if it rests on an independent source of probable cause or if intervening circumstances have sufficiently attenuated the connection between the illegality and the evidence. Reliance solely on information from the unlawful search leaves the evidence suppressed.
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Yes. When officers have a lawful basis for probable cause that existed independently of the unlawful conduct, the evidence obtained under a warrant supported by that independent information is admissible even if tainted information was also included in the affidavit.
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Courts examine the temporal proximity between the illegality and the discovery of the evidence, the presence of intervening circumstances such as a voluntary act by the defendant, and the flagrancy of the official misconduct.
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…discovery exception to the exclusionary rule. Williams contends that evidence of the body's location and condition is "fruit of the poisonous tree," i. e. , the "fruit" or product of Detective Leaming's plea to help the child's parents give her "a Christian burial," which this Court had already held equated to interrogation. He…