Police can violate your Fourth Amendment rights in an Illinois criminal case when they conduct an illegal search or seizure. The remedy for violating these Constitutional rights is that some evidence may be suppressed and is not able to be used in your case. A court will throw out evidence that is considered the “fruit of the poisonous tree.” A Will County criminal defense attorney can review your case and determine whether to challenge any of the evidence at trial.
Courts Will Apply an Exclusionary Rule
If a court determines that a search or seizure was illegal, they will not necessarily dismiss the case against you entirely. Instead, the prosecutor would need to proceed without using the illegally acquired evidence. Functionally, it could mean that the prosecutor would need to dismiss their case because they cannot prove it. For example, if drug charges against you depend on drugs that were seized in an illegal search, the prosecutor may not have any other evidence to use.
The Illegal Search Must Be Related to the Evidence Seized
The court would look to see if there is a causal relationship between the search and the evidence that is being challenged. This rule applies not just to the direct evidence, but any evidence that was seized as a result of the search. For example, if the wrongfully taken evidence leads police to other evidence, it would all be suppressed. The poisonous tree is the wrongful search, and the fruit is evidence that resulted from the tree.
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