Cite as: 511 U. S. 79 (1994)
Thomas, J., dissenting
securing a judicial determination of probable cause during a period of lawful custody did not render that custody illegal. We have never suggested that lawful custody becomes unlawful due to a failure to obtain a prompt judicial finding of probable cause—that is, probable cause does not disappear if not judicially determined within 48 hours. Cf. United States v. Montalvo-Murillo, 495 U. S. 711, 722 (1990) ("[A] person does not become immune from detention because of a timing violation").
In short, the statement does not even meet the threshold requirement of being a "product" of the McLaughlin violation.2 Petitioner's statement, "while the product of an ar-have occurred during either. Brown, supra, at 611 (Powell, J., concurring in part). See also Harris, supra, at 18 (holding that even though the police violated the rule of Payton v. New York, 445 U. S. 573 (1980), by arresting a suspect in his house without a warrant, the resulting custody was lawful because the arrest was supported by probable cause, and that therefore the suspect's subsequent custodial statement was admissible).
As the Court notes, ante, at 85, n., a different rule applies to search warrants. In that context, we have insisted that, absent exigent circumstances, police officers obtain a search warrant, even if they had probable cause to conduct the search, see, e. g., Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U. S. 443, 454-455 (1971), and we have required suppression of all fruits of an unlawful search, unless an exception to the exclusionary rule applies. See generally Illinois v. Krull, 480 U. S. 340, 347-349 (1987). The same rule has not been applied to arrests. "[W]hile the Court has expressed a preference for the use of arrest warrants when feasible, it has never invalidated an arrest supported by probable cause solely because the officers failed to secure a warrant." Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U. S. 103, 113 (1975) (citations omitted). Nor has the Court required suppression of voluntary custodial statements made after an arrest supported by probable cause based solely on the officers' failure to obtain a warrant. See Harris, supra. Petitioner's statement was the product of his arrest and custody, and there is no reason to think that the rules we have developed in the search warrant context should apply in this case.
2 Thus, conventional attenuation principles are inapplicable in this case, for as we pointed out in Harris, "attenuation analysis is only appropriate where, as a threshold matter, courts determine that 'the challenged evidence is in some sense the product of illegal governmental activity.' " 495 U. S., at 19 (quoting United States v. Crews, 445 U. S. 463, 471 (1980)).
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