Opinion ID: 1688159
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the attenuation doctrine

Text: The State argues that although the initial stop may have been illegal, the illegality became irrelevant when Ramona Tope consented to a search of the car and the cocaine was thereafter found in plain view during the consent search. Generally, evidence discovered and later found to be derivative of a Fourth Amendment violation must be excluded as fruit of the poisonous tree. Nardone v. United States, 308 U.S. 338, 341, 60 S.Ct. 266, 267, 84 L.Ed. 307 (1939). However, there is no steadfast rule that evidence discovered after a Fourth Amendment violation must be excluded. [5] Instead, [i]n determining whether the exclusionary rule should apply to render evidence inadmissible as `fruit of the poisonous tree,' the question is `whether, granting establishment of the primary illegality, the evidence to which ... objection is made has been come at by exploitation of the illegality or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint.' State v. Lingar, 726 S.W.2d 728 (Mo. banc 1987) (quoting Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 488, 83 S.Ct. 407, 417, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963)). A.