The Exclusionary Rule is a fundamental constitutional principle of
criminal procedure law in the United States. Generally, it prohibits the
criminal trial of any evidence seized or otherwise obtained in violation of
Amendment to the Constitution. Under the Exclusionary Rule, improperly
evidence that leads to the subsequent discovery of other incriminating
automatically invalidates or "poisons" the newly discovered derivative
same way that a poisonous tree taints the fruits growing on any of its
While it derives from the Fourth Amendment, it is not actually
anywhere within the text of the Constitution or its Amendments. In fact,
judicially created more than a century after the Constitution was ratified
the Fourth Amendment included within the Bill of Rights in 1791 (Tinsley).
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, house, papers,
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause,
supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the
place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
At British Common Law, any evidence of guilt was admissible into
and proof of guilt was considered to excuse any illegal conduct involved in
it, even retroactively, in effect, functioning as an absolute defense on
police or government authorities who violated the law (Tinsley):
"â€where a Man arrests another, who is actually guilty of the Crime for
which he is arrested, it seems, That he needs not in justifying it,
set forth any special Cause of his Suspicion, but may say in general,
that the Party feloniously did such a Fact, for which he arrested him
In the nearly one and one quarter century between 1791 and 1914,
criminal courts allowed the introduction of evidence establishing guilt in
cases,...