ATLANTA (AP) — An appeals court on Thursday overturned the conviction of a former Atlanta police officer sentenced to prison for lying to FBI agents about the killing of a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid.

A Fulton County Superior Court judge sentenced [Arthur] Tesler to 4 1/2 years in prison and six months probation last May. Tesler has also pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges.

Kathryn Johnston was killed by a barrage of bullets fired by officers who stormed into her home in November 2006 with a no-knock warrant.

Police originally said officers had gone to Kathryn Johnston’s northwest Atlanta home in 2006 after an informant bought drugs there. But after finding none, officers tried to cover up the mistake by planting baggies of marijuana, prosecutors said.

Two other officers, Jason R. Smith and Gregg Junnier, pleaded guilty to state and federal charges. Tesler, who did not fire a shot, faces sentencing next month after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiracy to violate civil rights resulting in death.

Tesler was in Johnston’s backyard when plainclothes officers burst in through the front door the night of Nov. 21, 2006, using a special “no-knock” warrant to search for drugs. Johnston fired a single shot from a rusty revolver at the intruders, but hit no one, and officers fired 39 bullets, hitting the woman five or six times, prosecutors said.

via The Associated Press: Conviction nixed in deadly botched Ga. drug raid.

Does it bother anyone else that police missed at least 33 shots at close range against a 92-year-old woman?  Or that cops thought that finding planted weed on a dead elderly woman wouldn’t raise a few eyebrows?  Or that cops in Georgia are running around with a couple of baggies of weed on them “just in case”?

I even have a small (very small) degree of sympathy for the officers in this case because their job requires them to serve these no-knock warrants to catch what they believe will be gun-totin’ drug-addled violent thugs.  The lying and planting evidence is inexcusable, of course, but treating all drug warrant as if they are taking down Tony Montana is bound to get innocent people and police officers killed (see: Corey Maye).

Why can’t police officers watch a suspect’s home, wait til he leaves the home, and apprehend him, when they can see he’s not armed? I know the no-knock warrants are so a suspect doesn’t have the time to flush the cocaine down the toilet, but why are no-knocks given for marijuana raids?  Lights, ballasts, pots, soil, and live plants are not exactly easily disposable, there should be plenty of time for police to knock, identify themselves, and enter calmly.