Exclusion Exception for Inevitable Discovery

Question 1

U.S. v. Andre

Answer 1

A drug enforcement agent arrested a person and an hour later decided to search his van. They found cocaine.

This was an illegal search. This was not a proper inventory search (did not follow procedure).

The court accepted the governement’s argument that the van would have been searched as part of an inventory search. So this evidence would have been inevitably discovered.

Question 2

Inevitable Discovery Doctrine

Answer 2

If the police would have ultimately found the evidence anyway, the fruits of an illegal search/seizure are admissible.

This is like a hypothetical independent source.