From
the YakimaHerald.com Online News.
From AP: Supreme
Court upholds no-knock police search
WASHINGTON
(AP) — The Supreme Court made it easier today for police
to barge into homes and seize evidence without knocking or
waiting, a sign of the court's new conservatism with Samuel
Alito on board.
The
court, on a 5-4 vote, said judges cannot throw out evidence
collected by police who have search warrants but do not
properly announce their arrival.
It
was a significant rollback of earlier rulings protective of
homeowners, even unsympathetic homeowners such as Booker
Hudson, who had a loaded gun next to him and cocaine rocks
in his pocket when
Detroit
police entered his unlocked home in 1998 without knocking.
The
court's five-member conservative majority, anchored by new
Chief Justice John Roberts and Alito, said police blunders
should not result in "a get out of jail free card"
for defendants.
Dissenting
justices predicted police will now feel free to ignore
previous court rulings requiring officers with search
warrants to knock and announce themselves to avoid running
afoul of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on
unreasonable searches.
"The
knock-and-announce rule is dead in the
United States
," said David Moran, a
Wayne
State
University
professor who represented
Hudson
. "There are going to be a lot more doors knocked down.
There are going to be a lot more people terrified and
humiliated."
Supporters
said the ruling will help police do their jobs.
"People
who are caught red-handed with evidence of guilt have one
less weapon to get off," said Kent Scheidegger, legal
director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.
The
case provides the clearest sign yet of the court without
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Hudson
had lost his case in a
Michigan
appeals court. Justices agreed to hear his appeal last June,
four days before O'Connor's surprise announcement that she
was retiring.
O'Connor
was still on the bench in January when his case was first
argued, and she seemed ready to vote with
Hudson
.
"Is
there no policy of protecting the homeowner a little bit and
the sanctity of the home from this immediate entry?"
she asked.
She
retired before the case was decided, and a new argument was
held this spring so Alito could participate, apparently to
break a 4-4 tie.
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