If you are facing criminal charges, it is important to understand exactly how the law applies in your case. One legal doctrine you may want to be aware of is known as the “fruit of the poisonous tree.”
This doctrine affects when evidence can be used in court. If the police make mistakes or violate your rights while gathering evidence, then these issues taint the entire “tree.” The “fruit” that they gather often cannot be used in court, meaning important evidence may be excluded. This could significantly alter your chances of being convicted.
Example: An illegal search of your home
To see how this works in practicality, consider that the police may want to search your home, but they do not have a search warrant. You do not give them consent to come inside, but they do it anyway.
While they are illegally searching your home, the police find firearms or illegal drugs. You are arrested.
If they had executed a search warrant properly and found that evidence, it could be an easy conviction. But because they performed an illegal search, they violated your rights. They never should have been able to find that evidence in the first place, so it may have to be excluded from the case.
Now, consider that the drugs and firearms they found may be the only evidence they have against you. Rather than easily convicting you, they are going to lose the case because there is no useable evidence that you did anything wrong.
This is just one important legal doctrine to keep in mind. Be sure you know about all of your defense options when facing charges.