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Matthew Wise, et al. v. William Hurt, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, No. 17-1771, 17-1777 · judgment January 23, 2018

Certiorari denied · October 29, 2018
Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

i QUESTIONS OF LAW PRESENTED

  1. In June of 2012, was there a clearly established law in the Seventh Circuit stating that it was unlawful, during interrogations of non-juvenile murder suspects, for police to use psychological tactics such as leading questions, fact-feeding, good cop/bad cop, verbal threats, vague promises of leniency, bluffing, deception, and admonitions to tell the truth?

  2. Did the actions of these police officers violate the Fourth Amendment or the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution?

  3. Do the same constitutional restraints apply to police officers conducting interrogations of adult suspects as apply to juvenile suspects?

  4. Did these police officers have at least “arguable probable cause” to believe that the Respondents committed this murder, and therefore, did qualified immunity apply?

  5. Did the Seventh Circuit violate the mandate of the recent United States Supreme Court case of White v. Pauly, WL 269170 (2017), which urges federal courts to apply qualified immunity more liberally?

  6. Did the Seventh Circuit examine this qualified immunity issue from the perspective of the police officers based upon the information that they knew at the time?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Jason B. Bell
Bell, Hess & Van Zant, PLC

For respondent
Debra Loevy
Loevy and Loevy

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Related
Vide, 17-1655

Proceedings

  1. Oct 29 2018
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Oct 03 2018
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/26/2018.
  3. Sep 13 2018
    Brief of respondents William Hurt, et al. in opposition filed. VIDED.
  4. Aug 14 2018
    Response Requested. (Due September 13, 2018)
  5. Jul 25 2018
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/24/2018.
  6. Jun 19 2018
    Waiver of right of respondents William Hurt, et al. to respond filed.
  7. Jun 05 2018
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due July 9, 2018)