Origin 1920, in Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States; the metaphor itself coined in 1939, in Nardone v. United States.
Fruit of the poisonous tree is a doctrine of United States criminal procedure under which evidence derived from an unconstitutional search, seizure, interrogation or other illegal act is generally inadmissible against a defendant, on the reasoning that if the source of the evidence, the tree, is tainted, then anything gained from it, the fruit, is tainted as well. First articulated in Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States (1920) and named in Justice Felix Frankfurter's opinion in Nardone v. United States (1939), the doctrine extends the Fourth Amendment's exclusionary rule to secondary evidence, subject to established exceptions such as independent source, inevitable discovery and attenuation.
Facts
Origin Period1920, in Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States; the metaphor itself coined in 1939, in Nardone v. United States. 1 Core PrincipleIf the source of evidence is tainted by an illegal search, seizure or interrogation, then anything derived from that tainted source is likewise inadmissible, unless an exception such as independent source, inevitable discovery or attenuation applies. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.