GA: Mistake as to smell of MJ v. hemp was reasonable, if there was one

“At most, Gowen’s assertion about the similarity of the smells of hemp and marijuana calls into question the reasonableness of the officer’s belief that he smelled burnt marijuana. Assuming for purposes of this appeal that Gowen’s assertion is correct (even though the trial court made no such finding and may have assigned no weight to the testimony Gowen elicited in support of that assertion), the officer could have reasonably, but mistakenly, believed that he smelled burnt marijuana; the smell could have been hemp but it also could have been marijuana since, according to Gowen, they smell the same. Because the officer reasonably—even if mistakenly—believed that he smelled marijuana, he had probable cause to search the van. See, e.g., ….” Gowen v. State, 2021 Ga. App. LEXIS 316 (June 25, 2021).

6½ month old information in child pornography case not stale. Macky v. State, 2021 Ga. App. LEXIS 322 (June 25, 2021).*