fruit of the poisonous tree

In US law, any secondary legal evidence that has been obtained as the result of unconstitutional or illegal means or information gathered in such a way. Such evidence, both the primary source and the secondary result, are generally inadmissible in court. The defendant's lawyers urged the judge to suppress the cache of weapons as fruit of the poisonous tree, arguing that their location was outside the purview of the search warrant obtained by police. A: "Why can't we use this in court? It's practically an admission of guilt!" B: "Because you obtained the recording illegally, which makes its contents fruit of the poisonous tree!" They know they have no case. They had no right to search your vehicle, so the large sums of money they found are fruit of the poisonous tree and can't be used in court.