4A 4C 2006: Good Faith Exception Applies To No-Knock Search Warrants

UNITED STATES v. SINGLETON, 441 F.3d 290 (4th Cir. 2006), No. 04-4108, 2006 U.S.App. LEXIS 7201, on appeal from USDC-MDD, before USCJs Niemeyer, Motz, King, opinion by Motz, filed 23 Mar 2006.

LONG STORY SHORT: Police reasonably relied in good faith on a no-knock warrant even if exigent circumstances might no longer have justified not knocking and announcing, and evidence would not be suppressed. Binding in MD, NC, SC, VA, WV.

FACTS: Officers of the Edgewood, MD PD applied for a search warrant to seize evidence of drug sales from Defendant's home. Officers requested a no-knock warrant for safety reasons because Defendant had a number of prior arrests, including second-degree murder in 1987 (although he had only one minor arrest since then); Defendant's apartment was in an open air drug market with a history of shootings and other violence; and the only way to Defendant's apartment was over open ground, where other residents would see the officers and warn Defendant. The court granted the no-knock warrant, and officers executed it that way.

In a locked safe were a 42g crack cookie, three baggies of marijuana, $1,400 cash, and a loaded handgun. Defendant admitted that he lived there, took all responsibility for the gun and drugs in the safe, and assured officers (correctly) that no other contraband was in the house. Later, in jail, he told an officer "I can't believe I did something this stupid."

PROCEDURE: The United States indicted Defendant in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland for possession of 5g crack with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and possession of a firearm while a convicted felon. Defendant moved to suppress the fruits of the search, because no exigent circumstances justified a no-knock warrant and the officers could not have relied in good faith on such a warrant. MOTION TO SUPPRESS DENIED. The United States had the gun, drugs, and incriminating statements admitted over objection at trial, and the jury convicted Defendant as charged. Defendant appealed his conviction and sentence to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

DECISION: Police serving a search warrant must generally knock and announce before forcing entry, unless they have a particularized basis to reasonably suspect that knocking and announcing would be met with violent resistance. Here, the facts that Defendant was a suspected drug dealer and that neighbors could see the officers coming were not particular to Defendant's situation, and by themselves would not justify immediate entry. Defendant's violent arrest history was 14 years old and no contemporary evidence suggested beforehand that Defendant was armed.

Nonetheless, in a question of first impression in the Fourth Circuit, officers may reasonably rely on a judicially-issued no-knock warrant, even if it is not clearly necessary for officer safety, and the good faith exception will apply to keep the evidence from being excluded. Since police had applied in good faith and gotten a warrant, penalizing the officers executing it would not deter police misconduct. DENIAL OF SUPPRESSION AFFIRMED; CONVICTION AFFIRMED; but SENTENCE VACATED for unrelated reasons and Defendant should be resentenced.

EDITORIAL: Since then, of course, the Supremes have gone further and flatly said that no-knock violations are not grounds for suppression, on the same reasoning that it would not prevent police misconduct. Police will find the evidence anyway, and who's to say how long is not long enough--courts have enough to do without having to decide whether five seconds, or two, or ten, or thirty, is long enough to wait. Liberals have squalled about this, but they do not carefully read the rest of the Supreme Court opinion, which says that officers still may be SUED for not waiting long enough. Not that truth matters to liberals--John Whitehead, the Christian leftist who never met an American soldier or cop he liked, simply lied about what the Supreme Court said.
Now I'm not the world's expert on serving search warrants, but no-knock warrants are a tool in the toolbox, not the default choice. As the guys in Atlanta found out, the 93-year-old great-grandma inside has no way to know you're the police if you just start busting down the door in the middle of the night, and she may start a gunfight that can have no winners.