Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 25, 1993 TAG: 9306250046
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The court, in a 5-4 ruling, said prosecutors do not enjoy absolute immunity against lawsuits for supervising or participating in police investigations.
The justices ruled unanimously that prosecutors also may be sued for out-of-court statements, such as those at news conferences, about grand jury indictments.
The decision revived a civil rights lawsuit by an Illinois man jailed for three years until prosecutors dropped charges against him in a kidnapping-slaying.
The court acknowledged that local, state and federal prosecutors cannot be sued for what they do in their roles as courtroom advocates for the government.
But Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the court, said that immunity is lost when a prosecutor helps in a police investigation.
"When the functions of prosecutors and detectives are the same . . . the immunity that protects them is also the same," Stevens said.
Police officers are entitled to qualified legal immunity and are shielded from being sued only if they acted "in good faith."
Joining Stevens were Justices Harry Blackmun, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Byron White and David Souter dissented, voting to give the Illinois prosecutors absolute immunity for their investigative actions.
The court also:
Ruled in a Kentucky case that states may make it easier to commit mentally retarded people to state facilities against their will than to commit the mentally ill.
Reinstated a Nevada man's murder convictions and death sentence, ruling that criminal defendants must be allowed to plead guilty or waive their right to a lawyer as long as they are mentally competent to stand trial.
by CNB