Also known as: fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine · fruit of the poisonous tree · fruits of the poisonous tree · poisonous tree doctrine · exclusionary rule derivative evidence
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A rule requiring exclusion of evidence obtained directly or indirectly from an unconstitutional search or seizure. The doctrine treats such derivative evidence as tainted by the initial violation unless the government shows an exception such as independent source, attenuation, or inevitable discovery.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Traffic officers unlawfully opened the glove compartment of a dealership vehicle during a test drive and found a notebook listing storage-unit locations. Relying solely on the notebook, they obtained a warrant and seized altered dashboards and titles from the units. The court must suppress the dashboards and titles because they were obtained by exploiting the initial illegality.
Officers arrested Finn Fletcher without probable cause and took him to the station. Three days later, after release and a voluntary interview with proper warnings, Fletcher supplied server credentials leading to chat logs on a third-party server. The logs are admissible because intervening circumstances and the passage of time purged any taint from the initial arrest.
Detectives questioned Forrest Falconer in violation of his Sixth Amendment rights and obtained directions to a child's body. Search teams already closing in on the location would have found the body within hours through an independent grid search. The body and its condition are admissible under the inevitable-discovery exception.
Federal agents illegally wiretapped conversations involving Felix Franco. The government later used the intercepted calls to locate and seize narcotics from a co-defendant's warehouse. Franco may not move to suppress the narcotics because he lacked a legitimate expectation of privacy in the warehouse.
Agents conducted an unlawful search of Faith Fitzgerald's apartment and seized documents naming Fumiko Fujimoto. Fujimoto seeks to suppress the documents at her own trial. Fujimoto lacks standing because she had no privacy interest in Fitzgerald's apartment.
Officers arrested Floyd Franklin without probable cause and took him to the station. Within two hours Franklin gave a detailed confession that led police to physical evidence. The confession and the evidence must be suppressed because the short time interval and lack of intervening circumstances left the taint intact.
No. The doctrine also requires suppression of evidence later obtained by exploiting the initial illegality. Officers who unlawfully searched a glove compartment and then used the resulting notebook to obtain a storage-unit warrant produced derivative evidence that must be suppressed absent an exception.
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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…
…by police conduct which overcame his will to resist," id. , at 654.) The next year, the Court again declined to apply the "fruit of the poisonous tree"
…coercive tactics. Under the totality of the circumstances, the Court finds that Defendant’s statements were voluntary. C. Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
…In its initial opinion, the Arizona Supreme Court had determined that the second confession, to Donna Sarivola, was not the "fruit of the poisonous tree
…(1984), and — U.S. -, 106 S.Ct. 2246, 90 L.Ed.2d 693 (1986). The Court need not address this argument to the extent that the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine
Courts examine temporal proximity between the illegality and the discovery of evidence, the presence of intervening circumstances, and the flagrancy of official misconduct. A three-day gap plus a voluntary interview with warnings can dissipate the taint, while a two-hour interval without intervening events usually does not.
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Evidence remains admissible if the government can show it was obtained through a source wholly separate from the illegality. Prior lab reports from a public drainage ditch supplied an independent basis for a warrant even though officers later trespassed on fenced property.
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Standing requires a legitimate expectation of privacy in the place searched. A co-defendant may not suppress narcotics found in a warehouse after an illegal wiretap unless the co-defendant had a privacy interest in the warehouse itself.
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