Famed academic Cornel West
is arrested in Ferguson, MO
Alabama law that is more than 100 years old says a warrant should be properly signed and executed. In my case, courtroom evidence shows there was no warrant at all.
My encounter with a rogue cop happened inside my own home. I don't think I even had a speeding ticket on my record when an Alabama deputy named Chris Blevins entered my home without showing a warrant, stating he had a warrant, or that he intended to arrest me--and then proceeded to knock me down three times and spray me in the face with Mace.
What crime had I allegedly committed. None. An Alabama judge claimed I was in contempt of court, even though I had filed court papers showing I had not been lawfully served with papers in a lawsuit. That meant the court had no jurisdiction over me, and Officer Blevins had no grounds to be in my garage.
What about that case that dates back more than 100 years? It's from 1903 and is styled Oates v. Bullock, 136 Ala. 537, 33 So. 835. Oates is so old that we can't find the full case on the Web. But the gist of Oates can be found in a case styled Kelley v. State, 316 So. 2d 233 (1975), which is more or less from the modern era.
Kelley was about a search warrant, but the text makes it clear that the finding applies to arrest warrants--in fact, the Kelley opinion was based largely on a finding in Oates regarding an arrest warrant. Here is the key section from Kelley:
Often rules relating to arrest warrants parallel those applying to searches and vice versa. Significantly unsigned arrest warrants have been held void. Oates v. Bullock, 136 Ala. 537, 33 So. 835 (warrant utterly void).
Returning to matters at hand, the Kelley court then stated the following about the search warrant before it:
Since the search warrant was not signed by the municipal judge, it is our opinion that it was void on its face and any search and seizure made thereunder was unauthorized and illegal.
If an arrest in 1903 was illegal because of an unsigned arrest warrant, it seems clear that a 2013 arrest would be illegal when courtroom evidence shows there was no warrant at all.
What can we learn from all of this? I would submit that all Americans should pay attention to events in Ferguson, Missouri. You never know when you might be victimized by a thuggish cop--and it could happen inside your own home.
