There’s an important legal doctrine known as the fruit of the poisonous tree. If you are facing charges, you need to know how this works and how it could apply to your case. It may change what evidence can be used in your case, which can significantly alter the chances of a conviction.
When looking at evidence, the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine simply states that evidence that is gathered illegally cannot be used in court. Because that evidence was only discovered through illegal action, the authorities should not have had access to it in the first place. Therefore, they cannot use it to convict you – even if it otherwise would have led to that conviction.
Stolen goods
For example, say that the police are conducting an investigation and they believe you may be keeping stolen items in your house. They want to come into your home and search for these items. They don’t have a search yet, but they come to your home and ask for consent to enter.
Since they do not have a warrant in this hypothetical situation, you are not obligated to give them your consent. You can tell the officers that they cannot search your home or even come inside. But say that those police officers force their way inside anyway, and they do find the stolen items that they were looking for.
If the officers had gotten a search warrant first, they could use those stolen goods as evidence that you committed the theft. But because they conducted an illegal search that was a violation of your rights, they have to exclude the discovered items from the court case. Since they don’t actually have any other evidence that you broke the law, this could prevent a conviction.
Your legal options
This is just one example of how this legal doctrine can apply to a court case. It shows why it is so important to understand your legal defense options when facing charges.
