Avery v. City of Milwaukee

Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendants-police officials’ motion for summary judgment in section 1983 action alleging that defendants had failed to disclose under Brady impeachment evidence about how they obtained false statements from three jailhouse informants that were used to convict plaintiff on murder charge, where Dist. Ct. held belief that such evidence was already known to plaintiff. While plaintiff already knew that such evidence was false, he was unaware of detectives’ efforts to generate such evidence. As such, Brady applied. Also, Dist. Ct. erred in entering judgment on defendants’ behalf, in contravention to jury’s verdict in favor of plaintiff in his claim that defendants had concocted false confession that was used to support plaintiff’s conviction, where: (1) plaintiff properly alleged due process violation based on contention that defendants’ manufacturing of false evidence was used to deprive him of his liberty; (2) fact that plaintiff had state-law remedy for malicious prosecution did not defeat his federal due-process claim against officers who had fabricated evidence; and (3) instant defendants did not have absolute immunity to authenticate their falsified evidence at trial.