God Bless Texas
A victim of a no-knock warrant has been somewhat vindicated (somewhat because he’s still dead):
A state appeals court threw out search and arrest warrant affidavits used in a December 1999 drug raid that left the son of true-crime writer Barbara Davis dead.
The ruling, released Thursday, states that the no-knock warrants failed to show an informant was reliable, and it states that North Richland Hills police Sgt. Andy Wallace did not corroborate many of the facts passed along by the informant.
The ruling was the result of an appeal by Davis, who pleaded guilty to possession of GHB, a designer drug, found after the raid. Her plea agreement included the right to appeal.
The case could be retried or dismissed, or prosecutors could appeal.
The ruling by the three-judge Court of Appeals 2nd Judicial District of Texas in Fort Worth could also affect a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the Davis family.
The city has maintained that police had probable cause to burst into the house without knocking to search for marijuana plants because Troy Davis, the author’s son, was considered armed and dangerous. Barbara Davis was also in the house at the time.
Read the last paragraph again. They thought it was OK to plan on killing someone because they may have marijuana plants.
June 23rd, 2004 at 10:44 am
No-Knock Kills
Say Uncle posts about a man killed during a no-knock raid. The search and arrest warrants that underlied the raid were later tossed out by a court. Another innocent victim of the war on drugs. It’s really simple. Execution of no-knock warrants will, w…