{"id":90,"date":"2011-05-16T16:05:53","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T20:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/?p=90"},"modified":"2011-06-28T16:06:37","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T20:06:37","slug":"knock-before-entering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/?p=90","title":{"rendered":"Knock Before Entering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supreme Court sides with police followed smell of pot into apartment without having a warrant <\/strong><\/p>\n

By Associated Press, Published: May\u00a016 | \u00a0Updated: Tuesday, May\u00a017, 7:38\u00a0AM<\/h3>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Supreme Court on Monday ruled against a Kentucky man who was arrested after police burst into his apartment without a search warrant because they smelled marijuana and feared he was trying to get rid of incriminating evidence.<\/p>\n

Voting 8-1, the justices reversed a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that threw out the evidence gathered when officers entered Hollis King\u2019s apartment.<\/p>\n

The court said there was no violation of King\u2019s constitutional rights because the police acted reasonably. Only Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented.<\/p>\n

Officers knocked on King\u2019s door in Lexington and thought they heard noises that indicated whoever was inside was trying to get rid of incriminating evidence.<\/p>\n

Justice Samuel Alito said in his opinion for the court that people have no obligation to respond to the knock or, if they do open the door, allow the police to come in. In those cases, officers who wanted to gain entry would have to persuade a judge to issue a search warrant.<\/p>\n

But Alito said, \u201cOccupants who choose not to stand on their constitutional rights but instead elect to attempt to destroy evidence have only themselves to blame.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her dissent, Ginsburg said her colleagues were giving police an easy way to routinely avoid getting warrants in drug cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice officers may now knock, listen, then break the door down, never mind that they had ample time to obtain a warrant,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The case concerned exceptions to the Fourth Amendment requirement that police need a warrant to enter a home.<\/p>\n

The issue was whether warrantless entry was justified after the officers\u2019 knock on the door triggered a reaction inside that sounded like the destruction of evidence.<\/p>\n

An odd set of facts led to Monday\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

Police were only at King\u2019s apartment building because they were chasing a man who sold cocaine to a police informant. The man entered King\u2019s building and ducked into an apartment. The officers heard a door slam in a hallway, but by the time they were able to look down it, they saw only two closed doors.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t know which one the suspect had gone through, but, smelling the aroma of burnt pot, chose the apartment on the left.<\/p>\n

In fact, the suspect had gone into the apartment on the right. Police eventually arrested him, too, but prosecutors later dropped charges against him for reasons that were not explained in court papers.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supreme Court sides with police followed smell of pot into apartment without having a warrant By Associated Press, Published: May\u00a016 | \u00a0Updated: Tuesday, May\u00a017, 7:38\u00a0AM WASHINGTON \u2014 The Supreme Court on Monday ruled against a Kentucky man who was arrested … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bmbs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}