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KY: No hot pursuit; odor of marijuana not exigency for entry of home

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Alleged exigency here was police created, and the police were not in hot pursuit at the time of the entry. While the odor of marijuana would be exigent circumstances for an automobile, it cannot be for a home. King v. Commonwealth, 2010 Ky. LEXIS 3 (January 21, 2010): Odor alone is generally an insufficient basis for the warrantless search of a home based on imminent destruction of evidence. In Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 15, 68 S. Ct. 367, 92 L. Ed. 436 (1948), the Supreme Court held the warrantless search of a hotel room invalid where the officers detected "a strong odor of burning opium which to them was distinctive and unmistakable." Id. at 12. The Court stated that an odor, sufficiently distinctive to be recognized as an illegal substance, and detected by one qualified to recognize it, can be sufficient to justify the issuance of a warrant...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on January 27, 2010 (boomark / email).