Reaction Paper (Fruit of The Poisonous Tree Doctrine)

REACTION PAPER
Chan, Gileo Billy E. OCTOBER 09, 2022

BS CRIM 4-N
"Fracture" is a Crime Thriller movie portrayed by start-studded actors. And

among the actors, Anthony Hopkins as Ted Crawford and Ryan Gosling as Willy
Beachum are the two lead roles of the movie.
Crawford was an excellent aeronautical engineer and attempted to murder his
wife because he had discovered that his young wife Jennifer Crawford played by
Embeth Davidtz is having an affair with the local police detective. When Ted
discovered that his wife was having an affair, he then started planning the process
of killing his wife. One-day after making the plans, Ted held his wife inside their
house and then he shot her on the face. The incident caused alarm to his
gardeners so the police respondents start to move all over the place.
Among all negotiators who responded on the crime scene, only Lt. Robert Nunally
which played by David Strathairn and was the negotiatior was allowed To enter
the house where Crawford shot his wife. Upon entering Nunally ask Ted where is
his wife and he was shocked when he saw Jennifer who is his long time lover
swimming on her own blood. Ted confess to him that he shot his wife, due to this
crime Ted was held liable for shooting his wife and will face court trials. And this
case was given to Willy Beachum , a young and talented district attorney as his
last case before moving to a better position into a private law firm. With the belief
that the case will just be an easy one since there was already a signed confession
and a murder weapon, Willy didn't prepare much as he did on his previous cases.
At the trial, Crawford rejects his right to counsel and chose self-representation
(Pro Se) which is allowed under California Laws. Crawford informs the court that
the arresting officer (Nunally) was having an affair with his wife, assaulted him
during his arrest, and was present during his interrogation. Crawford's confession
is therefore ruled inadmissible as evidence, being fruit of the poisonous tree.
Nunally comes up with a scheme to plant false evidence to implicate Crawford,
which Beachum rejects. With no new evidence to present, Beachum has to
concede the trial is lost, and Crawford is acquitted. Disgraced, Nunally commits
suicide outside the court.
In the end, Beachum confronts Crawford with his Findings. With Jennifer now
dead, the bullet lodged in her head can now be retrieved and matched with
Nunally's gun as there is also an evidence found that Crawford was at the hotel
where he had swapped Nunally’s gun to his. Crawford said with confident that he
is protected by the principle of double jeopardy. However, Beachum informs him
that by allowing his wife to die, Crawford can now be prosecuted for murder,
having previously been tried merely for attempted murder. Since he had taken
Jennifer off life support, new charges can be filed against Crawford and a new trial
can be held. Crawford is arrested by waiting police.
The film ends with a new trial about to begin, with Beachum prosecuting and
Crawford surrounded by a team of highly paid defense attorneys.
a) What are the requirements for evidence to be admissible in court?

-Evidence must be relevant material, and competent in order to be admitted in court.
It must show a believable propensity to support or deny a truth in order to be
considered relevant. Although it need not make a fact certain, it must at least have
the tendency to either increase or decrease a fact's possibility.
The finder of fact (jury or judge) will choose the proper weight to assign each piece of
evidence after it has been admitted as relevant evidence. When a piece of evidence is
used to support a fact that is in dispute in a case, it is referred to as material evidence.
If a piece of evidence complies with certain established standards of dependability, it
is deemed "competent." The competence norms of evidence are being steadily
undermined by courts by making them issue-related to the weight of evidence.
b) Do the pieces of evidence presented in the movie admissible in Philippine court? If

yes, why? If not, why not?.
-The confession was not admissible as evidence because it is a fruit of poisonous
tree or in other words it is obtained illegally. Since Crawford was under Duress
during the writing of his confession and the judge believed that he was coerced to
do so. But the bullet in Jennifer's head maybe use as evidence for murder because
it is matched with the gun that Crawford used. And there was evidence that
Crawford was present at the hotel where her wife and the detective were having
an affair and swapped the detective’s gun to his.
c) What is the Fruit of Poisonous Doctrine?

-Fruit of the poisonous tree is a legal metaphor used to describe evidence that is
obtained illegally. The logic of the terminology is that if the source of the evidence
or evidence itself is tainted, then anything gained from it is tainted as well.

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REACTION PAPER

Chan, Gileo Billy E. OCTOBER 09, 2022

"Fracture" is a Crime Thriller movie portrayed by start-studded actors. And

a) What are the requirements for evidence to be admissible in court?

b) Do the pieces of evidence presented in the movie admissible in Philippine court? If

c) What is the Fruit of Poisonous Doctrine?

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