AELE LAW LIBRARY OF CASE SUMMARIES:
Civil Liability of Law Enforcement Agencies
& Personnel
Other Misconduct: Lineups
A man exonerated
of his rape conviction by DNA evidence after serving 23 years in prison
claimed that a police officer involved in the investigation was liable
because he allegedly failed to disclose an incident which may have suggested
that another man, who visited the victim's apartment while the officer
was there, committed the crime. But no reasonable jury could find that
the officer knew, at the time, the exculpatory value of the visit without
simply speculating. At worst, the officer acted negligently in failing
to identify the actual rapist as a suspect, and this was insufficient to
show a reckless investigation. The plaintiff also failed to show that another
defendant officer conducted an improperly suggestive lineup. The victim's
identification of the plaintiff as her rapist, although mistaken, had significant
indicia of reliability to be admitted as evidence at trial. Briscoe v.
County of St. Louis, #11–3034, 690 F.3d 1004 (8th Cir. 2012).
Suspect's constitutional rights were not violated
by an allegedly unduly suggestive photographic array shown to robbery victims
and used as the basis for a search warrant for his residence and an arrest
warrant for him Sejnoha v. City of Bisbee, 815 F.Supp. 1300 (D.Ariz 1993).