Under the 'independent source' doctrine, illegally obtained evidence is admissible if there exists what?

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Under this doctrine, the key idea is that the evidence can come in if there is a source for the information that is independent of the illegal conduct. If the police can show that the evidence would have been discovered anyway through a separate, lawful avenue, then the taint from the illegal search doesn’t bar admission. The independent source must be truly separate from how the initial evidence was obtained.

For example, if an unlawful search yields a lead, but a different, legal investigation independently uncovers the same evidence, and that lawful discovery would have occurred irrespective of the illegal act, the evidence is admissible because it came from an independent source.

This differs from attenuation, which looks at whether the causal link between the illegality and the evidence has been sufficiently weakened, and from inevitable discovery, which allows admission if the police would have found the evidence anyway through lawful means.