egregious misconduct that results in innocent people being sent to death row.
In 2011 , the U.S. Supreme Court again reinforced the protections that shield prosecutors
from accountability. A month before an inmate named John Thompson was scheduled to be
executed in Louisiana, a crime lab report was uncovered that contradicted the State’s case
against him for a robbery-murder that had taken place fourteen years earlier. State courts
overturned his conviction and death sentence, and he was subsequently acquitted of all
charges and released. He filed a civil suit, and a New Orleans jury awarded Thompson $ 14
million. The jury found that the district attorney, Harry Connick Sr., had illegally suppressed
evidence of Thompson’s innocence and had allowed him to spend fourteen years in prison for
a crime he had not committed. Connick appealed the judgment, and the U.S. Supreme Court
overturned the award in a bitterly divided 5 – 4 decision. As a result of immunity law, the
Court held that a prosecutor cannot be held liable for misconduct in a criminal case, even if
he intentionally and illegally withheld evidence of innocence. The Court’s decision was
strongly criticized by scholars and Court observers, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a
compelling dissent, but Thompson did not get any money.
We faced similar obstacles in Walter’s case. After a year of depositions, hearings, and
pretrial litigation, we eventually reached a settlement with most of the defendants that would
provide Walter with a few hundred thousand dollars. Walter’s claim against Monroe County
for Sheriff Tate’s misconduct could not be settled, so we appealed the case to the U.S.
Supreme Court. Law enforcement officers generally have no personal resources to pay
damages to victims of misconduct, so the city, county, or agency that employs them is
typically the target of any civil action that seeks compensation. That’s why we had sought
relief from Monroe County for the misconduct of its sheriff. The county took the position that
even though the sheriff’s jurisdiction is limited to the county, he’s elected by people only in
the county, and he’s paid by the county, he’s not an employee of the county. The county
sheriff was an employee of the State of Alabama, the county claimed.
State governments are broadly shielded from recovery for their employees’ misconduct
unless the employee works for an agency that can be sued. If Tate was a state officer, Monroe
County would have no liability for his misconduct and no recovery would be possible from
the State of Alabama. Unfortunately for Walter, the Supreme Court ruled that county sheriffs
in Alabama are state officers, again in a close 5 – 4 decision, which limited our ability to
recover damages for the most egregious misconduct in Walter’s case. We ultimately reached
settlement with all parties, but I was disappointed that we couldn’t get more for Walter.
Adding insult to injury, Tate went on to be re-elected sheriff, and he remains in office today;
he has been sheriff continuously for more than twenty-five years.
While the money wasn’t as much as we would have liked, it did allow Walter to restart his
logging business. He loved getting back into the woods and cutting timber. He told me that it
was working from morning until night, being outdoors, that made him feel normal again.
Then one afternoon, tragedy struck. He was cutting a tree when a branch dislodged and
struck him, breaking his neck. It was a serious injury that left Walter in very poor condition
for several weeks. He didn’t have a lot of care available, so he came to live with me in
Montgomery for several months until he recovered. He eventually regained his mobility,
although the injury put an end to his ability to cut trees and perform difficult landscape work.