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: Legal Pad | LAU.S. Supreme Court to hear prosecutor immunity case
By Jason Siegel
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that would define the boundaries of prosecutor immunity.
Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley and others petitioned for the high court to hear a case where an L.A. man, wrongfully convicted murder, sued former D.A. John Van de Kamp and his former chief deputy, Curt Livesay, for failing to set up guidelines for using jailhouse informants. The 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals ruled that they were not immune because the suit had to do with their role as office managers, not as prosecutors.
Cooley, the
California District Attorneys Association and the National District
Attorneys Association appealed to the high court that this undermines prosecutors' absolute immunity and would encourage a huge amount of lawsuits. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1972's Imbler vs. Pachtman that prosecutors have "absolute immunity" from lawsuits, citing a centuries long precedent in English law.
Thomas Goldstein, a Marine Corps veteran from Long Beach, spent 24 years in prison, due to a jail house informant claiming Goldstein confessed to him. The informant falsely claimed did get any benefit in exchange for his testimony.
Goldstein told the Los Angeles Times that the suit should only apply to prosecutors who appear in court, not supervisors that set county policies. "[The case] would put every prosecutor's office on notice they need to establish an information management system for informants. And that will result in fewer wrongful convictions," Goldstein told the Times.
Oral arguments are scheduled for the fall.
"Justices Accept Question of Prosecutors as Lawyers or Managers", The New York Times
"Supreme Court to hear Los Angeles County district attorney immunity case," The Los Angeles Times
"Court to rule on suing ex-D.A.," The Associated Press
Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on April 16, 2008 (boomark / email).
Supreme Court to hear prosecutor immunity, EPA regulation cases
[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] Monday granted certiorari in two cases [order list, PDF], including Van de Kamp and Livesay v. Goldstein (07-854) [docket; cert...
UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR CASE THAT COULD SEVERELY LIMIT PROSECUTORIAL IMMUNITY
The Supreme Court recently decided that it take up a Los Angeles case to decide whether a chief prosecutor can be held liable for a man's wrongful conviction for murder. The case of Van de Kamp vs...
What does it mean for a witness to get immunity
The best witness for a prosecutor is an unbiased eye witness. For certain types of crime this is rare. A witness of value may be involved in the commission of the very crime a prosecutor wants to convict someone of...
"Supreme Court to hear appeal in immunity case; Los Angeles prosecutors are urging justices to overrule the 9th Circuit's decision allowing a man who was wrongly convicted of murder to sue the case supervisors"
"Supreme Court to hear appeal in immunity case; Los Angeles prosecutors are urging justices to overrule the 9th Circuit's decision allowing a man who was wrongly convicted of murder to sue the case supervisors": David G...
"Supreme Court to hear Los Angeles County district attorney immunity case; Justices will consider whether ex-D.A. John Van de Kamp can be sued over the conviction of Thomas L. Goldstein, who was freed after 24 years"
"Supreme Court to hear Los Angeles County district attorney immunity case; Justices will consider whether ex-D.A. John Van de Kamp can be sued over the conviction of Thomas L. Goldstein, who was freed after 24 years": David G...
A strong argument for limiting prosecutorial immunity
In this commentary over at Reason, titled "Suing the DA: Should prosecutors be immune from civil lawsuits?", Radley Balko makes a strong case for affording prosecutor only qualified immunity, rather than absolutely immunity, for their official behavior...
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