Week of May 16, 2023

In suit by Black jury venire members, court accepts non-racial explanations for striking jurors.

In outrageous qualified immunity decision, court denies absolute immunity but affords qualified immunity to prosecutor who redacted exculpatory information from exoneree’s file, thus interfering with his access to courts claim, because it was not clearly established that redacting exculpatory evidence in response to a public records request violated constitutional or statutory law.

Placing inmate in disciplinary/segregated confinement constitutes “adverse action” for First Amendment retaliation claim.

Officer who pointed his Taser at a woman and told her to “get back” and to leave the area and go home had seized her within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, through a show of authority that restrained her liberty, despite the fact that she was not arrested or detained and was not told that she was not “free to leave”.

Pretrial detainee with back injury, attention deficit disorder, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and insomnia had serious medical needs; denial of prescription medications demonstrated deliberate indifference.

Sickle cell crisis was objectively serious medical need; fact issues precluded summary judgment for nurse who failed to send detainee to ER and officer who failed complete required checks on detainee in restraint chair; other nurse’s conduct of failing to call doctor or perform further checks on detainee in restraint chair was not deliberate indifference.

Clearly established that carrying a weapon, without more, does not justify and officer’s decision to shoot, deadly force may only be used when another person is threatened with the weapon.

Court’s failure to instruct jury on punitive damages sua sponte did not amount to plain error.