A case that I suspect has a pretty good shot at being heard by the Supreme Court, Jones v. Jennings, will be on the Court’s conference agenda for January 18, 2008. The case involves the smashing of the Narragansett Tribe’s fledgling smokeshop by state officers. Jones, the police officer, broke the ankle of Jennings, a tribal member, during the conflagration (which was caught on tape and played all over Indian Country for months).
In particular, the questions presented are:
1. Whether the Fourth Amendment is violated when, for several seconds, a law enforcement officer uses a compliance technique on a suspect who may be concealing a weapon, who seconds before injury was kicking wildly at the officers, who actively resisted and refused to stop resisting and give his hand for cuffing, when that suspect claims to be in pain, but is not yet under control.
2. Whether the First Circuit departed from bedrock qualified immunity principles in two respects: First, in holding that the law was “clearly established” by the Eleventh Circuit in a case involving injury to a resisting suspect who “docilely submitted to arrest” that did not involve a compliance technique; and second, through its determination that the officer’s conduct was such an “obvious violation” of the Fourth Amendment that no testimony, evidence, or case law was needed, and that the jury could rely on its common sense and reject the only expert testimony affirming the use of the technique as reasonable under the circumstances.
3. In deciding a Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law, when a judge is assessing the defense of qualified immunity following a general jury verdict in favor of the plaintiff, whether the judge must deem the jury to have found those facts that are most unfavorable to the qualified immunity defense, especially when those facts are contradicted by a videotape of the incident.
Cert Petn at i.
Cert Petition in Jones v. Jennings
States Amicus Brief in Favor of Cert Petition
Rhode Island Cities and Towns Amicus in Support of Cert Petition
Turtle Talk 