Gatewood Galbraith at Seattle Hempfest 2010

Kentucky political figure and perennial gubernatorial candidate Gatewood Galbraith died early Wednesday of complications from chronic emphysema, according to Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn.Galbraith, 64, was found at home in his bed by family members Wednesday morning, according to a report by Ginn. The Lexington Division of Fire was called at 8:42 a.m., and Galbraith was pronounced dead at 9:19 a.m.

Ginn said a family member told him that Galbraith had been sick for about a week. Galbraith’s cold-like symptoms were complicated by chronic asthma and emphysema, Ginn said. He was a heavy smoker of cigarettes.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/01/04/2015454/longtime-political-figure-gatewood.html#storylink=cpy

NORML’s remembrance of Gatewood Galbraith

Gatewood’s interview on NORML SHOW LIVE – 12/3/2010

We’ll miss you, Gatewood.  We’ll never stop fighting the “Petrochemical-Pharmaceutical-Military-Industrial-Transnational-Corporate-Fascist-Elite-Bastards“.

UPDATE: According to Dea Riley, his former running mate and friend:

Gatewood did not smoke cigarettes only marijuana. As a matter of fact Gatewood would not enter a public facility in which smoking was allowed. He had earlier in his life smoked cigarettes, but a relatively short time compared to his long years of marijuana smoking.

I apologize – I didn’t personally know the extent of Galbraith’s tobacco habit and was only reporting what the coroner said.

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• Kentucky v. King decision, Supreme Court rules 8-1 that cops can break down your door if they smell pot and hear “scurrying”

Tango Two Charlie, smells like we got us some overtime hours in this apartment complex!

In a case decided yesterday, Kentucky v. King, the US Supreme Court has ruled that cops who smell marijuana coming from your home can break down your door and arrest you, just as long as they knock first and claim to have heard you destroying evidence.

They don’t need a warrant or probable cause, either.  Today in America, police can now randomly patrol neighborhoods and apartment complexes sniffing around for pot.  When they smell it, they can knock on your door and then break it down, claiming they heard noises from within.

The 4th Amendment to the US Constitution plainly states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Writing for the Supreme Court in a 1980 case called Payton v. New York, Justice Stevens reiterated:

In terms that apply equally to seizures of property and to seizures of persons, the Fourth Amendment has drawn a firm line at the entrance to the house. Absent exigent circumstances, that threshold may not reasonably be crossed without a warrant.

The smell of a burning flower and the sound of “scurrying” are now the “exigent circumstances” needed to “reasonably” cross that “firm line” without a warrant.

(Los Angeles Times) Ruling in a Kentucky case Monday, the justices said that officers who smell marijuana and loudly knock on the door may break in if they hear sounds that suggest the residents are scurrying to hide the drugs.

Residents who “attempt to destroy evidence have only themselves to blame” when police burst in, said Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. for an 8-1 majority.

In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she feared the ruling gave police an easy way to ignore 4th Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. She said the amendment’s “core requirement” is that officers have probable cause and a search warrant before they break into a house.

“How ‘secure’ do our homes remain if police, armed with no warrant, can pound on doors at will and …forcibly enter?” Ginsburg asked.

The Supreme Court ruled in Kentucky vs. King that the officers’ conduct “was entirely lawful,” and they were justified in breaking in to prevent the destruction of the evidence.

Note to self and advice to others:  When you’re smoking pot in your home and the cops come a-knockin’, be very, very quiet.  I’m only half-kidding, for as Justice Alito writes:

When law enforcement officers who are not armed with a warrant knock on a door, they do no more than any private citizen might do. And whether the person who knocks on the door and requests the opportunity to speak is a police officer or a private citizen, the occupant has no obligation to open the door or to speak. Cf. Florida v. Royer, 460 U. S. 491, 497-498 (1983). (“[H]e may decline to listen to the questions at all and may go on his way”). When the police knock on a door but the occupants choose not to respond or to speak, “the investigation will have reached a conspicuously low point,” and the occupants “will have the kind of warning that even the most elaborate security system cannot provide.”

If you make noise when the cops knock, police can interpret that as you attempting to hide or destroy evidence (drugs), which creates the “exigent circumstance” needed to break down your door.  Which leads me to ask, what does hiding or destroying cannabis sound like?  I suppose the sounds of garbage disposals, trash compactors, and flushing toilets would be obvious answers.  In King’s case, “scurrying” was enough; I guess cops could argue that he was running to the window throw out a baggie.  Of course this all depends on taking the police at their word when they testify that they heard the “scurrying”.

In the King case, the cops weren’t even looking for King.  They were conducting a sting operation on a street-level crack dealer.  When he ran upstairs to his apartment on the right, the police followed, but they lost him.  As they reached the apartment on the right, they smelled marijuana from King’s apartment on the left.  The police knocked loudly on the apartment on the left.  They then heard “scurrying”, so they broke down the door and caught King with marijuana and cocaine.

The smell of marijuana burning does give police indication there is a crime taking place behind that door – the possession of at least a joint or a bowl of marijuana.  In Kentucky, such a first offense would be a crime worthy of a misdemeanor with a max of one year in jail and a $500 fine.  It would take more than eight ounces on a first offense for felony charges.  The police, not knowing King or having any probable cause to go after King, essential beat down his door on the “exigent circumstance” he may be destroying evidence of a misdemeanor.  Is it “reasonable” to violate a man’s 4th Amendment rights over a potential misdemeanor?

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(LEX18.com) Governor Steve Beshear on Thursday signed into law a landmark justice reform bill designed to decrease the state’s prison population, reduce incarceration costs, reduce crime and increase public safety.HB 463 is estimated to save the Commonwealth $422 million over the next decade. The bill is the culmination of years of study and work to solve a complex problem: out-of-control corrections costs.

The bill modernizes Kentucky drug laws by reducing prison time for low-risk, non-violent drug offenders who possess small amounts of illegal drugs. It then reinvests the savings from the reduced prison costs into drug treatment opportunities for offenders who need help. The law also strengthens probation and parole laws by basing key decisions on the risk posed by offenders and improving supervision, and links offenders to appropriate community resources.

HB 463 will now reduce the penalty for possessing up to a half pound of marijuana from a Class A misdemeanor and a possible year in jail to a Class B misdemeanor with a 45-day jail maximum.  It also allows police discretion to avoid arresting someone solely for marijuana possession, instead just issuing a citation and summons to appear in court, if it is believed the suspect will not fail to show up for the court date.

Don’t let this article get you shaking your head.  It all boils down to one thing, be smarter than the police.  Whether you’re in your car or in your house or walking down the street, if there is no reason for the police to take a second look at you, then you have no worries.  The police cannot search you or your car or house without a warrant unless you give them a reason to.  If your car is legal and you are driving safely and not blowing hits out of the window, there is no reason for the police to pull you over and if they don’t pull you over, they can’t think about searching you.  The same goes for your house and your day to day activities.

There are only two occasions when the police can just go ahead and search you and one is “Exigent Circumstances”.  This exception refers to emergency situations where the process of getting a valid search warrant could compromise public safety or could lead to a loss of evidence.  So if they hear the toilet flush, they’re coming in.

The other is “Plain View”.  If the police see your weed on the front seat or you open the front door and the police see a bong on the table, you’re busted.

(WashingtonPost.com) Kentucky police were following a man who had just sold drugs to an undercover informant. They entered an apartment breezeway, heard a door slam and found they had two choices.

Behind door No. 1 was the dealer. And, unfortunately for him, behind door No. 2 were Hollis King and friends, smoking marijuana.

Smelling the drug, the officers banged loudly on King’s apartment door and identified themselves as police. The officers said they heard a noise and feared evidence was being destroyed. They kicked down the door and found King, two friends, some drugs and cash.

King was sentenced to 11 years in prison, but the Kentucky Supreme Court overturned his conviction. It said that the officers had entered the apartment illegally and that the evidence they found should not have been considered in court.

On Wednesday, the case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it will provide another chance for justices to decide when police may enter a home without permission or a warrant and not violate the Constitution’s protections against unreasonable searches.

Do click on the Washington Post link and read the entire article.  The questions asked by the justices are going to determine whether police can just bust down your door because they merely smell marijuana.

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