Page:Brief for the United States, Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471 (1963).djvu/17

 led on from him to petitioner Wong Sun and unexpectedly circled back to involve Toy as well, were not the fruit of the arrest of Toy. And the later confessions of Toy and Wong Sun, yet another stage removed, were likewise considered by the court of appeals not to be fruits of the arrests of either Toy or Wong Sun.

The government agrees with the court of appeals that the evidence introduced at the trial was not the product of the arrests. However, it is the government's initial position that that issue need not be reached because the judgments below may be sustained upon the ground that the arrests were lawful emergency arrests based upon probable cause.

Petitioners were lawfully arrested on probable cause.

A. In ruling that there was a lack of probable cause, the court of appeals unduly emphasized what is only one element in the determination of reliability—the receipt of prior information from an informant. Information may be given under such circumstances that it has the badge of reliability even if the informant has not previously had occasion to furnish information to the officers. The question is always whether, under the particular circumstances presented by the record, the officers acted reasonably. There is no mechanical rule forbidding reliance on information from an informant who has not previously been tested.