Wong Sun v. United States
Case Date: 07/22/1963
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Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471 (1963), is a United States Supreme Court decision excluding the presentation of verbal evidence and recovered narcotics where they were both fruits of an illegal entry. Narcotics agents unlawfully entered Toy's laundry at which point Toy indicated that Yee was selling narcotics. The drug agents then went to Yee and found the narcotics. Yee made a deal to give up his supplier, Wong Sun. Wong Sun was a prominent businessman, so the police invited him for a conversation about the case. Following this conversation, Wong Sun voluntarily returned to the police station to make a deal of his own, during the process of which he confessed. At Yee's trial, Toy's statements and the discovered drugs were both excluded as fruit of the poisonous tree because the search was done without a warrant. Wong Sun's lawyer argued that Wong Sun's confession should also be excluded as fruit of the poisonous tree. The court affirmed the fruit of the poisonous tree rule, but found an exception to exclusion in Wong Sun's case on the grounds that Wong Sun had voluntarily returned to the police station to make his statement, an act which had "become so attenuated as to dissipate the taint" or broke the chain of inadmissible evidence. Wong Sun was granted a new trial, but his confession was admissible.
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