May 9, 2020

Taylor Hensel recently secured dismissal of all claims against a Georgia sheriff’s deputy who was accused of not thoroughly investigating a murder which led to the arrest of the wrong suspect.  The team successfully argued that the lieutenant went above and beyond the threshold of probable cause in his investigation since the suspect twice confessed to being at the crime scene and failed a polygraph test, even though the person who identified the suspect later recanted that identification.  Because the suspect was immediately released as soon as probable cause dissipated, the lieutenant was entitled to qualified immunity.

April 15, 2020

Tim Buckley and Taylor Hensel secured dismissal of a prisoner’s claim that a county court clerk and his deputy clerk purposely withheld his habeas corpus petition, violating his constitutional right of access to the courts.  The team from Buckley Christopher argued that the prisoner did not have standing to bring his claim because he could not show an “injury in fact,” i.e. any actual injury, because he was still able to bring his petition to the Georgia Supreme Court who ultimately denied same. Specifically, the Court found that because the prisoner did not meet his burden of showing that the claims underlying his court-access claims were non-frivolous or arguable, he did not show that any denial of his right of access to courts resulted in actual injury. Without a showing of actual injury, he lacked standing, see Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343, 353 n.3 (“Depriving someone of a frivolous claim . . . deprives him of nothing at all . . . .”), and summary judgment was granted in the county court clerk’s favor.