The fruit of the poisoned tree according to Halacha

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asked 3 years ago

Peace and blessings, Rabbi Michael,
I recently came across the doctrine of the fruit of the poisoned tree and tried to think about what the sages and the halakhah think about this issue (acceptable evidence obtained illegally or through a halakhic offense) and no sources came to mind. Could the rabbi refer me to issues related to this question? I would also like to hear, what is the rabbi’s opinion on this specific issue from a moral and halakhic perspective?
thanks.

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מיכי Staff answered 3 years ago

There is a consideration here of future prevention versus current punishment. Perhaps it is right to accept the evidence and punish the person who committed the offense. This way, both deterrence and justice are achieved. In terms of halakhah, I do not know of a clear reference to the matter, and certainly not a sweeping one. There are tangential cases such as the case of a person who forged a bill in order to create evidence of fraud) in 2:33. Or the case of a forger in Gittin 4:1, regarding a forger from within it, and the comment of Reka there. There are of course all kinds of evidence that is indirectly invalid due to offenses such as the testimony of a wicked person, but there it is not the invalidation of the evidence but of the person. This is not the case with every offense either.

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טירגיץ replied 3 years ago

There is also a risk that the criminals will use the police to threaten each other. A certain mobster threatens someone to commit a crime for me, otherwise I will leak incriminating information about you to the police. From there, I got the impression that this is one of the criminals' powerful tools. They can leak, not only to impeach another for a crime, but also to thwart competition. The disadvantage of thwarting competition is that the criminal thinks it will advance him, so how can the police know whether it is really worth it to arrest the person they leaked information about or whether it will actually increase the crime because they have arrested the enemy of the enemy. As they said at the time, Israel's policy of shelling places led to the manipulative use of the IDF by competing factions. This is the fruit of the anonymous tree, and we don't know if it is poisonous. I don't know the issue, and I haven't had the chance to see whether and how this seemingly trivial and general problem is being addressed.