Also known as: fruit of the poisonous tree · fruits of the poisonous tree · 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 a constitutional violation but also evidence later derived from exploitation of that illegality. The doctrine requires courts to determine whether the connection between the initial violation and the challenged evidence has become so attenuated as to dissipate the taint. Factors relevant to attenuation include temporal proximity, intervening circumstances, and the flagrancy of official misconduct.
Environmental officer Dana Cruz secretly placed a sampling device inside ChemTech Corporation's locked wastewater pipe without a warrant. Using only data from that device, the agency obtained warrants and seized ChemTech's servers and lab reports. ChemTech moved to suppress the records. The court suppressed them because the warrants rested entirely on information obtained through the prior violation.
Agent Perez hacked into Malik's home server without a warrant and viewed private IP logs. Perez then used those logs to obtain warrants for NimbusCloud's internal records and employee emails. Malik moved to suppress the emails. The court excluded both the logs and the emails because the warrants were derived directly from the unlawful search.
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Detective Leaming elicited an unwarned statement from Williams directing officers to a child's body. Officers later located the body through an independent search already underway. The court admitted evidence of the body's location and condition because it would have been discovered regardless of the violation.
Federal agents conducted an unlawful wiretap of a suspected conspirator's phone. The government later introduced conversations involving Alderman that were captured on the same tap. Alderman moved to suppress the evidence. The court held that only those with a legitimate privacy interest in the tapped conversations could challenge the derivative evidence.
Officers obtained an unwarned statement from Patane revealing the location of a firearm. They recovered the gun based on that statement. Patane moved to suppress the firearm. The court admitted the gun because the physical evidence was not itself a testimonial statement subject to the Miranda violation.
Officers arrested Brown without probable cause and took him to the station. Several hours later, after receiving Miranda warnings, Brown gave a detailed confession. Brown moved to suppress the statement. The court examined the time lapse, intervening circumstances, and flagrancy of the arrest to decide whether the taint had dissipated.
No. The doctrine extends the exclusionary rule to evidence later derived from exploitation of an initial constitutional violation. Courts must determine whether the connection between the illegality and the challenged evidence has become attenuated.
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Evidence is admissible if obtained by means sufficiently distinguishable from the primary illegality to purge the taint. Relevant factors include temporal proximity between the violation and discovery of the evidence, intervening circumstances, and the flagrancy of official misconduct.
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No. A warrant does not purge the taint if its probable cause rests solely or primarily on information obtained through the prior violation. An independent source or sufficient attenuation must be shown.
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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…