Fruit of the poisonous tree
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Fruit of the poisonous tree is an American legal term, used to describe evidence gathered with the aid of information obtained illegally. The logic of the terminology is that if the source of the evidence (the "tree") is tainted, then anything gained from it (the "fruit") would be likewise.
For example, if a policeman interrogated a suspected thief without reading his Miranda rights to him, then found the stolen goods because of his admission of guilt, the stolen goods could not be used as evidence in court.
This term is used as part of enforcing the honesty of the police force.
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