A cornerstone of American legal rights is the protection against unreasonable governmental search and seizure. Where evidence against a criminal defendant has been illegally obtained, for example, without a proper search warrant, that evidence cannot be used at the trial. This principle is known informally as The Doctrine of The Fruit of the Poisonous Tree. In other words, if the means are tainted, the ends or fruits of those means must likewise be poisonous.

The Poison Tree by Robert Glaudini, directed by Robert Egan for the Mark Taper Forum, uses this doctrine as a springboard for interwoven tales--of a husband and wife who began their relationship illicitly, of the death of the woman's[...]