An extraordinarily important legal decision just dropped, and no one is talking about it

[Nevilledog]

https://popular.info/p/an-extraordinarily-important-legal

On February 13, 2020, Nicholas Robertson was shot in Jackson, Mississippi. Wounded, Robertson knocked on the door of a nearby home. But by the time the police arrived, Robertson was unresponsive and died before he could be transported to a hospital.

Two months later, in an unrelated incident, Samuel Jennings was arrested for burglary and grand larceny. Jackson Police Department Detective Jacquelyn Thomas visited Jennings at the detention center. Jennings provided Thomas with a rambling written statement pinning the blame for Robertson's murder on a man named Desmond Green. The statement also claimed that Green moved Robertson's body after the murder:



Thomas used this uncorroborated statement to convince a grand jury to indict Green for murder. For 22 months, Green was held in a jail "full of violence, rodents, and moldy food." According to Green, he "often did not have a mattress, or even a pad, to sleep on." Green said he "constantly feared for his life."

But Green was indicted on a lie.

Jennings recanted his story in March 2022. Jennings said that when he made the statement, he was high on meth and provided the written statement to Thomas "to help myself get out of jail." Green had never confessed, Jennings admitted. Damningly, Jennings said that Thomas presented him with a photo lineup of suspects, and Jennings initially picked "Photo 1." But, according to Jennings, Thomas "pointed to the 5th photo of [the] lineup," and Jennings changed his selection.

*snip*

[pecosbob]

1. Qualified immunity...

[unweird]

2. Regarding Qualified Immunity

It has received scant media attention, but it is a very big deal. In a decision praised by legal scholars for its "power and beauty," Reeves establishes why the doctrine of qualified immunity, which can protect law enforcement officials sued for misconduct, is "unsupportable as a matter of history, text, and policy." Reeves calls on the Supreme Court to acknowledge its mistake and eliminate the doctrine of qualified immunity entirely.