There are many legal doctrines that people are not necessarily aware of until they encounter them themselves. After facing arrest, they suddenly begin looking into their options, and things are more complicated than they assumed. One of these legal doctrines is called the fruit of the poisonous tree.
We have previously discussed how the police cannot force their way into your home. It needs to be an emergency, they need to have your consent or they need to be executing a search warrant. If they neglect to do so, it is an illegal search.
Invalidating evidence
What the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine says is that illegally gathered evidence can’t be submitted in court. The police and the prosecution cannot use it in their case against you if they never should have found that evidence in the first place. They broke the law and violated your rights while gathering it, so it is excluded from court.
This can become very important if the search only turned up one piece of evidence, such as a stash of illegal drugs or an illegal firearm. The police believe they can get a conviction by simply demonstrating that you were in possession of these items and that you violated the law. But under the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine, if they broke the law when they found that evidence, they can’t use it in court – and it’s very unlikely that they will get a conviction if that’s the only evidence they had.
This is just one legal doctrine you need to be aware of when facing serious charges. Carefully consider all of your defense options.