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Supreme Court case on prosecutorial immunity settled

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The two parties in a prosecutorial immunity dispute before the US Supreme Court announced a settlement Monday, ending the case. The case was Pottawattamie County v. McGhee, in which the Court had been asked to consider whether a prosecutor may be subjected to a civil trial and potential damages for a wrongful conviction and incarceration where the prosecutor allegedly (1) violated a criminal defendant's "substantive due process" rights by procuring false testimony during the criminal investigation, and then (2) introduced that same testimony against the criminal defendant at trial. The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that the prosecutor was not protected from suit by absolute immunity. The two sides moved for dismissal Monday under Supreme Court Rule 46 without specifying reasons. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case on November 4. The Court granted the petition for certiorari in April.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 05, 2010 (boomark / email).