Lidia Soto, director of the National Indigenous Criminal Defense Program at the Legal Assistance Center, said in an interview that the cases presented in Thursday’s hearing had been among the more than 10,000 cases that have been submitted since 2010 related to police officers who used force against people in the country’s “first-degree assault” cases, often when it was impossible or illegal for victims to raise their hands without being physically restrained.
“The Supreme Court did the right thing to rule in these individuals’ favor and put to rest two decades of lies,” Ms. Soto said.
“What happened in court is that two federal judges gave the law enforcement community a chance to correct those things. That was important,” she said, a sentiment echoed by David Eltis, a lawyer for the defendants. “I have had lawyers come to my hotel room and just shake my hand and say it’s a victory for justice in the U.S.A. to stop the abuse that occurred under the color of law.”
On Thursday afternoon, the United States Supreme Court, which is deciding whether to hear the case, said it would review the case.
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“The high courts have ruled in this case, with all due respect, that we should look no further than the people who were injured. And those people must be given the opportunity to correct these acts because they should not have been abused in the first place,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote in a scathing opinion that cited one widely recognized case — the 1973 beating of Marvin Anderson Jr. — as a cautionary tale.
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“By any measure the Anderson case should have compelled the police officer in that case to stop the beating because it should have set a precedent that stopped him from engaging in the behavior that he was accused of,” Mr. Kennedy wrote, referring to an officer named James Smith.
Ms. Soto