The Fourth Amendment in the United States Constitution - Essay Example

The Court held that such illegal seizure circumvented the Fourth Amendment and that the records made are fruits from the poisonous tree (illegal seizure of tax books), hence may not be considered in court. However, under the independent source, doctrine evidence that is obtained based upon information unrelated to an unlawful search is not the fruit of the poisonous tree. In the case of Segura v. the United States (1984), law enforcers entered the private premises of the suspect and remained there until the search warrant arrived. The Supreme Court admitted the evidence found after the search warrant arrived but excluded all others as upon entry without the warrant. The Court held that the question on the legality of entry was irrelevant to challenge the admissibility of evidence due to the independent source of the warrant.

In the case of United States v. Leon (1984), a police officer that relied on a defective search warrant with no knowledge of the validity of the basis for how it was obtained was said to have acted in good faith, and the evidence obtained from such defective search warrant was allowed in Court. Another exception is the rule on inevitable discovery as in the case of Nix v. Williams (1984). The doctrine provides that if proven by a preponderance of the evidence, the evidence could have been discovered in a normal police investigation, and then the same is admissible. Here the Court did not consider the body of the victim that was found as “fruits” of illegal interrogation as it would have been discovered, even without the help of the suspect. Read More