Scenario time!

[tarkus]

What happens depends on whether you live in a democracy or a police state.

[HankB]

I looked at about 8 or 10 of the "death or injury of a police officer" reports at the Cato map, and didn't happen to find any where the cops were shot after hitting the wrong house . . . in each case I happened to check, though the whole "no-knock" situation was dodgy, they WERE serving a warrant that was written for the address on the warrant, and in most cases they reported finding the drugs they were looking for. (In one case, the wounded cop had been shot by another cop after the raid team split up.)

There WAS apparently some doubt as to whether or not they properly announced in all cases, and whether or not the occupant really knew they were cops. But in my sampling I didn't happen to hit upon a case where cops raided a house they didn't have a warrant to enter.

As for the Cory Maye incident, it IS disturbing on a variety of levels, but once again, it seems the cops DID have a warrant for his side of the duplex, though it's unclear whether or not it was a "no knock" warrant.

IANAL, and I firmly believe the best place to fight cops is in court, with an assault lawyer as your weapon. But if the police hit an innocent person at the wrong address and are shot as a result, I believe the DA will have an uphill battle obtaining a conviction on a surviving homeowner.

Here's a recent example - nobody died, but police were shot at and hit: http://wcco.com/local/iteam.police.raid.2.652690.html

[seamusTX]

I looked at about 8 or 10 of the "death or injury of a police officer" reports at the Cato map, and didn't happen to find any where the cops were shot after hitting the wrong house . . .

You are right, and I had failed to notice that. (This is called bias, and I'm willing to admit when I'm in the wrong.)

Two cases have dodgy aspects:

The Lewis Cauthorne Raid.

November 19, 2002—MD

On January 7, 2003, prosecutors in Baltimore announce they will not press charges against Lewis S. Cauthorne for firing a .45-caliber handgun at police who broke down his door during a no-knock raid in November 2002.

Cauthorne, at home with his mother, girlfriend, and three year-old daughter at the time of the raid, heard screaming when police broke open the door to his home and began searching for drugs. The raiding officers never identified themselves.

Prosecutors later determined that Cauthorne, who had no arrest record and whose father had been robbed and killed as a cab driver, had reason to believe his life was in danger when he fired and wounded three of the raiding police officers. Police fired back, but no one inside the home was hit.

Police were acting on a tip from a confidential informant, and claim to have found six bags with traces of marijuana, empty vials, a razor with cocaine residue, and two scales in Cauthorne's home. But the ensuing investigation found peculiarities with the evidence that precluded Cauthorne from being charged even with a misdemeanor. For example, there was no record of where exactly in the home the drugs were found, and crime lab technicians were told by police not to photograph the evidence.

Det. Sherman Griffiths.

February 17, 1988—MA

In 1990, a jury in Greenfield, Massachusetts acquits Albert Lewin of six charges, including first-degree murder, for the shooting death of Detective Sherman Griffiths.

Lewin, a Jamaican immigrant, was accused of shooting Griffiths as Griffiths attempted to break down a third-floor apartment door with a sledgehammer as part of a drug raid. Lewin was later found in a first-floor apartment of the same building, and implicated by another resident of that apartment.

The prosecution's case against Lewin was hampered by the fact that the warrant for the drug raid had been issued based on a tip from an anonymous informant police later conceded was entirely fictional.

- Jim