The exclusionary rule restores the prosecution to its lawful-evidence baseline rather than freeing defendants.

Evidence

Yet the exclusionary rule does not immunize lawbreakers from prosecution. Prosecutors can still pursue convictions with any evidence that the police have obtained legally. Put differently, the exclusionary rule merely places the government in the same position it would have been in had the illegal search or interrogation not taken place. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1832