Criminal lawyers challenge no-knock warrants
A recent criminal case pending in Macon Georgia is another example of the danger of no-knock search warrants.
Legally, a no-knock warrant is a search warrant that allows the police to enter a home without first knocking on the door or announcing who they are. The officers (usually about 10 officers working as a team) break down the person's door with guns drawn. Police argue that these warrants preserve evidence and contraband (usually drugs) because the occupants of the home being searched do not have a chance to hide or destroy anything before the police can seize it. Officers also like to catch people by surprise in case someone inside the home is armed and dangerous.
There are many problems with these warrants. The most common problem is the use of excessive force. One of our clients ran an investment firm being investigated for fraud. Police got a warrant to search for documents and they executed it during business hours at our client's high-rise office in Atlanta. About 20 police officers stormed through the door in riot gear with assault rifles. They pointed the guns at executives and secretaries alike, ordering them to get down on the floor. They held them like that for many hours. Of course, no one at the office had any guns, and they could have obtained any documents they wanted just by asking. After a lengthy investigation, no one was ever charged with any crime. Fortunately there were no serious injuries during the raid, but the people who lived through it are unlikely to ever forget it.
Officers also sometimes get the wrong house. A recent case in Atlanta serves as a tragic example of what can happen when an innocent person is surprised and attacked in her home by men with big guns.
In the Macon case, a sheriff's deputy named Joseph Whitehead was shot as he and other police stormed into the defendants' home on Atherton Street in Macon, Georgia. The Macon Telegraph article describes the case and the defendants who are facing the death penalty. The lawyers are arguing that the people inside the home had a right to defend themselves when Whitehead and his group slammed down their door and ran into the house with guns drawn. (A Georgia law protects people who shoot someone in self-defense from being prosecuted.) If the lawyers can convince either the judge or the jury that their clients did not know the men with guns were police, and that they acted in self-defense, they will win.
There is currently a congressional investigation into the use of no-knock warrants and confidential informants. The publicity surrounding the Neal Street incident in Atlanta has focused the nation's attention on the danger of these warrants. Hopefully, there will be some meaningful reform. In most cases, the risks of no-knock warrants greatly outweigh the supposed benefits. A dime bag of dope should never be so important that the police kill someone while trying to get it.
