Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

TN: Overpowering smell of a meth lab created exigent circumstances

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Police received a call from room 110 of a motel that there was a strong odor of a meth lab, so they came to the motel and found the smell coming from room 109, and it was overpowering, not just strong. Exigent circumstances justified the entry. State v. Meeks, 2008 Tenn. LEXIS 575 (September 2, 2008): The hazards posed by an actively operating methamphetamine laboratory are so significant that a number of state and federal courts have determined that the discovery of an actively operating methamphetamine laboratory, in and of itself, creates an exigent circumstance justifying immediate action without the attendant delays that accompany obtaining a search warrant. See, e.g., United States v. Lloyd, 396 F.3d 948, 954 (8th Cir. 2005); Williams v...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on September 08, 2008 (boomark / email).