ABSTRACT
The doctrine of "inevitable discovery" is one of several exceptions to the exclusionary rule, a broader doctrine providing that evidence obtained in violation of a defendant's constitutional rights is inadmissible at trial. Over time, the US Supreme Court has adopted several exceptions to the exclusionary rule. These exceptions allow evidence obtained in violation of a defendant's constitutional rights nonetheless to be admissible in court. The Supreme Court defined one such exception, the inevitable-discovery doctrine, in Nix v. Williams, 467 US 431. In that case, a jury convicted the defendant, Robert Williams, of the first-degree murder of ten-year-old Pamela Powers. The Supreme Court held that because the police were already searching the area in which Pamela's body was found, they would have inevitably discovered her body. Accordingly, the Court concluded that the evidence was admissible and upheld Williams's conviction.
