Also known as: purge the taint · taint purged · purging the taint · attenuation · independent source doctrine
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A doctrine under which evidence obtained after an unconstitutional search or seizure remains admissible when intervening circumstances or other factors sufficiently break the causal chain between the illegality and the discovery of the evidence. Courts assess temporal proximity between the violation and the evidence, the presence of intervening circumstances, and the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct. Purposeful or flagrant misconduct weighs heavily against a finding that the taint has been purged.
Officer Lewis stopped Marcus solely because Marcus carried a duffel bag after leaving work. Dispatch then reported an outstanding arrest warrant for an unrelated child-support matter. Lewis arrested Marcus on the warrant and found methamphetamine during the search incident to arrest. The valid warrant served as an intervening circumstance that attenuated the taint from the initial stop.
A witness viewed a suspect during a robbery at close range under good lighting. Police later conducted an unconstitutional lineup. At trial the witness identified the defendant with high certainty after describing the robber accurately shortly after the crime. The court found the in-court identification rested on an independent source that purged any taint from the lineup.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Police obtained an initial statement from a suspect without proper warnings. After administering Miranda warnings and allowing time to consult with counsel, the suspect gave a second statement. The court examined the surrounding circumstances and the officers' conduct to determine whether the second statement was sufficiently voluntary to purge the taint of the first.
Officers arrested a suspect without probable cause and took him to the station. Several hours later they gave Miranda warnings and obtained a confession. The court applied the attenuation factors and held that the passage of time and the warnings did not purge the taint because the arrest itself was purposeful and flagrant.
Police seized a suspect without probable cause and transported him to the station for questioning. After several hours they obtained a confession. The court held that the confession was the direct result of the unlawful seizure and that no intervening circumstances had broken the causal chain.
Officers entered a suspect's home without a warrant and arrested him inside. They later obtained a statement at the station. The court ruled that the statement was admissible because the arrest itself occurred outside the home and the causal link to the illegal entry had been sufficiently attenuated.
Courts examine the temporal proximity between the illegality and the discovery of the evidence, the presence of intervening circumstances, and the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct. Purposeful or flagrant misconduct weighs strongly against admissibility. Discovery of a preexisting valid arrest warrant unrelated to the stop can constitute a sufficient intervening circumstance.
Supporting sources
No. Courts consider whether the identification rests on an independent source by weighing the witness's opportunity to view the criminal, degree of attention, accuracy of the prior description, level of certainty at the confrontation, and time between the crime and the confrontation. When these factors show the identification is independent of the illegal lineup, the taint is purged.
Supporting sources
No. Miranda warnings are relevant but insufficient by themselves when the confession is the direct result of the unlawful arrest and the causal chain remains unbroken. Courts must still apply the attenuation factors, including the flagrancy of the misconduct and the presence of intervening circumstances.
Supporting sources
…the information ultimately or inevitably would have been discovered by lawful means. The doctrine is an extrapolation from the independent source doctrine and is consistent with the Fourth Amendment. Here, the search parties were within a short distance of the body when Williams led the police to it, and there was testimony that the body…