Sufficiency of Evidence

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Robert Lee Stinson v. James Gauger, et al.

Case No.: 13-3343; 13-3346; 13-3347

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER, POSNER, FLAUM, EASTERBROOK, MANION, KANNE, ROVNER, WILLIAMS, SYKES, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sufficiency of Evidence

Robert Stinson spent twenty‐three years in jail for a murder he did not commit. No eyewitness testimony or fingerprints connected him to the murder. Two dentists testified as experts that Stinson’s dentition matched the teeth marks on the victim’s body, and a jury found Stinson guilty. After DNA evidence helped exonerate Stinson, he filed this civil suit against the lead detective and the two dentists alleging that they violated due process by fabricating the expert opinions and failing to disclose their agreement to fabricate. The district court denied the defendants’ motions for summary judgment seeking qualified immunity after finding that sufficient evidence existed for Stinson to prevail on his claims at trial.

We conclude that we lack jurisdiction to hear the defendants’ appeals of the denial of qualified immunity because those appeals fail to take the facts and reasonable inferences from the record in the light most favorable to Stinson and challenge the sufficiency of the evidence on questions of fact. As a consequence, Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304 (1995) precludes interlocutory review. We do have jurisdiction to consider the district court’s denial of absolute immunity to Johnson and Rawson. That denial was correct because Stinson’s claims focus on their conduct while the murder was being investigated, not on their trial testimony or trial testimony preparation. The qualified immunity appeals are DISMISSED, and the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED with respect to its absolute immunity rulings.

Dismissed in part. Affirmed in part

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.