“There Is No Freestanding Constitutional Right Not To Be Framed”
"There Is No Freestanding Constitutional Right Not To Be Framed"
Absolutely sick stuff from an excerpt from a WaPo editiorial. The header of this blog post is a quote from a brief filed by Iowa prosecutors hoping to persuade the Supremes to dismiss a lawsuit against them for allegedly fabricating evidence and causing two men to spend 25 years in prison:
It's a breathtaking proposition that the justices should roundly reject when they hear the case Wednesday.According to court documents, the prosecutors took a leading role in 1977 in investigating the murder of a recently retired white police officer at an Iowa automobile dealership where he was working security. The prosecutors allegedly coaxed a witness to offer a version of events that implicated two African American men, Curtis W. McGhee Jr. and Terry J. Harrington; the witness gave several different statements over time and had trouble keeping his facts straight. Prosecutors also allegedly coerced other witnesses to lie and withheld evidence that pointed to a different culprit.
...Prosecutors need to be able carry out their duties without fear that they'll become the targets of personal lawsuits if defendants are found not guilty or charges are dropped. But such lawsuits face high hurdles. The Supreme Court has recently -- and correctly -- made it even more difficult for plaintiffs to make officials personally liable unless there's convincing evidence that they were directly involved in knowingly violating a clearly established constitutional right. Mr. McGhee and Mr. Harrington have shouldered that burden and should be allowed to proceed with their case.
via @radleybalko
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