Despite transparency failings, no-knock reform likely doomed by legislative inaction

Jan. 31—JACKSON — A lawmaker with oversight of criminal justice policy in the Mississippi House of Representatives says he supports restrictions on no-knock search warrants but will kill a bill that could do just that.

Ahead of a Tuesday deadline, Rep. Nick Bain, R-Corinth, does not plan to advance House Bill 102 out of a committee he chairs. Introduced by Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, the proposed legislation would ban the use of no-knock search warrants.

Bain told the Daily Journal he favors restrictions on the use of this controversial and dangerous law enforcement tactic, but not a complete ban.

"I think it's imperative for us to find a happy medium," Bain said.

Summers told Bain she would accept committee amendments to allow no-knock search warrants in some emergency circumstances. Those concessions, however, did not win an agreement from Bain to move HB 102 out of the Judiciary B committee.

Speaking with the Daily Journal last week, Bain pointed to a number of high-priority bills still pending before the committee and blamed his no-knock inaction on limited remaining calendar time — anything not voted out of committee within the originating chamber by adjournment Tuesday is dead.

He is also uncertain that his counterpart in the Senate would consider any no-knock legislation the House sends over.

Instead, Bain said amending a Senate bill to insert no-knock provisions could provide greater negotiating leverage. That strategy, he said, is more likely to produce a task force to study the issue.

Speaker open to reforms, cites conservative think tank

If the Northeast Mississippi lawmaker pursues ongoing legislative action, he has at least some backing from House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton.

"We're trying to find that sweet spot, trying to find a way that we can help law enforcement while at the same time protect innocent citizens," the House leader recently told the Daily Journal.

Gunn said a recent report by the American Legislative Exchange Council is guiding his thinking on the issue.

The conservative policy think tank recently noted that no-knock raids often create unnecessary violence and endanger the lives of civilians and law enforcement officers.

Gunn sits on the board of directors for ALEC.

These halting legislative talks follow an investigation by the Daily Journal and ProPublica that found search warrants, including no-knock warrants, are missing from some of the state's largest municipal courts and many county-level justice courts.

Some justice and municipal courts fail to require law enforcement to return search warrants and related documents, including inventories of what they seized. This flouts rules imposed by the Mississippi Supreme Court. Others keep search warrant records but won't let the public see them, defying well-established jurisprudence about the availability of court records.

Experts say this secrecy prevents oversight of no-knock raids, which have faced increased scrutiny since Louisville, Kentucky, police shot and killed Breonna Taylor in a 2020 no-knock raid.

Botched raid triggered concern

Shortly after 5 a.m. on April 24, 2015, Rita and Henry Hunter heard a noise at the front door of their Vicksburg home.

Rita Hunter was wearing a nightgown and drinking a cup of coffee while watching a local television news broadcast. Henry Hunter, only partially dressed, grew alarmed by the sound of the screen door opening, according to court records. He walked toward the bedroom to retrieve a firearm.

Then, a crash.

Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics officers knocked the front door off its hinges with a battering ram and entered, weapons drawn.

The officers screamed: "Get down! Get down!"

Rita Hunter hit the floor, praying. She begged her husband to do the same. A few moments later, he did so.

State narcotics agents were acting that morning under the authority of a no-knock search warrant.

The problem? Those agents broke into the wrong house, even after local police warned them about the impending error.

Henry and Rita Hunter sued the state narcotics agency, and a judge awarded the couple $50,000 following a civil trial.

After the 2020 death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, during the use of a no-knock search warrant, the botched 2015 raid in Vicksburg came to the attention of T.J. Taylor, who at the time was a policy staffer in Gunn's office.

Breonna Taylor's killing occurred as police tried to enter her apartment to search for drugs they believed had been hidden there by a former boyfriend. In response, some other southeastern states and cities banned or limited the use of no-knock raids, including Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Birmingham, Alabama.

T.J. Taylor began to research the issue. That's when he found out what happened in Vicksburg.

During the 2021 legislative session, Taylor told the Daily Journal that he advocated for legislation to ban or limit the use of no-knock search warrants.

Rather than a ban, however, Gunn introduced a bill in the 2021 session to create a task force to identify injuries linked to the use of search warrants and to make recommendations to lawmakers.

That bill easily passed the House of Representatives, but it died in the Senate. It was not even brought up for a hearing or a vote by Senate Judiciary B Chairman Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall.

When recently asked by the Daily Journal earlier this month about Gunn's task force bill, Fillingane said he did not remember it.

'Exception, not the rule'

In a recent interview with the Daily Journal, Gunn said his primary concern with no-knock search warrants continues to center around botched raids.

"There's been occasions where they've been executed on innocent people, they got the wrong house, they did it to the wrong person," Gunn said. "I think we're trying to find a way to allow law enforcement to use all the tools at their disposal, but at the same time protect the privacy and rights of innocent citizens who may become victims of a mistake."

The Daily Journal and ProPublica previously reported that at least two federal lawsuits over no-knock raids were settled in Mississippi last year.

One of those lawsuits stemmed from a March 2020 encounter in which Coahoma County sheriff's deputies shot Maurice Mason at least 17 times after breaking down the door to search the home where he was staying. Mason, who survived, was not the target of the search, was unarmed and was never charged with a crime.

The other settlement stemmed from the death of Ricky Keeton, a Smithville man who was killed by Monroe County sheriff's deputies during a 1 a.m. raid to look for drugs. Experts told the Daily Journal that the no-search warrant in that case was legally flimsy.

Sean Tindell, commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, has oversight of the state Bureau of Narcotics, the state Bureau of Investigation and the Highway Patrol. He said he would prefer to see a task force with law enforcement representation develop recommendations for the Legislature.

"I welcome the collective wisdom of law enforcement to take a look at this," said Tindell.

Tindell said he believes a ban on all no-knock search warrants would be "short sighted" but did say such warrants should be used sparingly and with caution. He noted his concern over the 2015 raid in Vicksburg and said he has spoken about the matter with the Bureau of Narcotics director.

"They should certainly be the exception and not the rule," Tindell said of no-knock search warrants.

Taylor Vance contributed to this report.

caleb.bedillion@djournal.com