SLATE COLUMN: In April of 2010, five police officers put Michael Kingsley face down on a cement bunk in a holding cell, shocked him with a stun gun for five seconds, then left him alone, writhing in pain with his hands cuffed behind his back, for 15 minutes. Kingsley sued the officers, claiming they violated his constitutional rights by using excessive force. He lost…
At the heart of Kingsley v. Hendrickson is a pretty straightforward question of intent. During the trial, the judge told the jury that Kingsley must lose unless he could prove the officers knew their actions could unduly harm Kingsley but went through with them anyway. Under that high standard, Kingsley lost. It’s incredibly difficult to prove law enforcement intentionally deprived suspects of their constitutional rights. Just ask the family of Michael Brown…
Kingsley involves an application of one of the Constitution’s most fundamental provisions, the due process clause. (As the justices love to remind us, the concept of due process comes from the Magna Carta itself.) This clause bars the government—or any “state actor,” such as a police officer—from depriving “any person” of “life, liberty or property without due process of law.” Kingsley argues that the “liberty” protected by this clause includes the right to be free from unreasonable force while awaiting trial. Thus, when police officers held down and stunned Kingsley, they violated his constitutionally protected liberty with no semblance of due process… (more)
