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The US Supreme Court ruled AGAINST no knock warrants in Wilson vs. Arkansas in 1995. Hopefully the family of Breonna Taylor still goes forward with a case against the Louisville Police Department if they are still able to given the negotiations of this settlement. That’s why it’s good to know case laws and passed decisions and rulings. The attorney for the Taylor family should hopefully know this and use the ruling of Wilson vs. Arkansas as precedence in a case against the Louisville Police Department.
this is incorrect.
We need not attempt a comprehensive catalog of the relevant countervailing factors here. For now, we leave to the lower courts the task of determining the circumstances under which an unannounced entry is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. We simply hold that although a search or seizure of a dwelling might be constitutionally defective if police officers enter without prior announcement, law enforcement interests may also establish the reasonableness of an unannounced entry.
Wilson v. Arkansas, 514 U.S. 927, 936 (1995)
It's been some time since I've reviewed criminal law or constitutional law on the subject, so take this with a grain of salt, but no-knock warrants are viewed on a case by case. Certain circumstances may be presented which authorize the execution of a no-knock warrant. Typically, the argument is that the accused may have a firearm, likely to start firing on officers if they announce themselves, may attempt to destroy evidence if officers announce, etc.
Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with Kentucky's jurisprudence on the subject whatsoever.
edit: adding link to the case, here, and brief summary:
A unanimous Court held that the common-law "knock-and announce" principle forms a part of the Fourth Amendment reasonableness inquiry. "Given the longstanding common-law endorsement of the practice of announcement, and the wealth of founding-era commentaries, constitutional provisions, statutes, and cases espousing or supporting the knock-and-announce principle,...the Amendment's Framers thought that whether officers announced their presence and authority before entering a dwelling was among the factors to be considered in assessing a search's reasonableness." Countervailing law enforcement interests, such as officer safety, may, however, establish the reasonableness of an unannounced entry.
factor to be considered in 4th amendment reasonableness inquiry, but countervailing law enforcement may establish reasonableness of no-knock.
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