| |
| |
This
excerpt is exactly as it appeared in the The Los Angeles Times as
it was written by |
Laura
Loh |
| |
| "Open
the door! Police search warrant!" |
| Lashawn
Banks who had been taking an afternoon shower said he didn't hear
the command. But he did here the loud boom 15-20 seconds later, when
officers used a battering ram to crack open his apartment door. |
| Officers
found him in the hallway, naked, soapy, and and siezed guns and cocaine
in his North Las Vegas, Nevada, apartment. |
| Banks
pleading guilty to federal drug-related charges. Nearly four years
later, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals of in San Francisco
voided the conviction. avoided the conviction never ruling 2 to
1 that officers had not given Banks enough time to respond to their
request. |
| How
much time officers should give suspects to come to the door before
breaking it down, is hotly debated in courts nationwide. And with
no specific time guidelines in place, the answer is basically unclear. |
| "Those
seconds count," says Sheriff's Deputy Tim Carr, who trains deputies
on how to execute search warrants at the Los Angeles County Sheriff
Academy. "It's allowing someone to arm themselves, or destroy
evidence." he says. |
| Those
who challange searches, meanwhile, invoke constitutional privacy protections
under the 4th Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and
seizures. |
| One
thing all can agree on is that there is a lot at stake in this debate. |
| In
cases where a judge can be convinced that not enough time had elapsed
between the door knock and a forced entry, incriminating evidence
obtained in the search can be tossed out, making prosecution difficult. |
| Cases
at issue generally concern searches in which damages is done to privet
property. If officers enter a home through an unlocked door, for example,it
is difficult to challenge the surch on the grounds that not enough
notice was given. |
| Another
exception comes when knocking would endanger officers' lives or allow
a suspect to flee or evidence to be lost. Magistrates in some states,
though not in California, can even hand out "no-knock" warrants
if they agreed in advance that it would be dangerous or ineffective
for officers to announce their presence. |
| The
U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the mid 1990s that officers are required
under both common and constitutional laws to knock and announce their
presence in most searches. |
| But
other than requiring knocking, the Supreme Court decided that the
framers of the Constitution did not intend for specific rules to be
established. |
| Police
officers must decide at the scene, after taking in a variety of factors
such as the time of day the size of the residents and whether there
are exigent circumstances. Later, judges are often asked to rule on
whether they were correct or incorrect. |
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
