Reginald Pittman, By and Through His Guardian and Next Friend, Robin M. Hamilton, v. Madison County, Illinois, et al.

The case was tried three times. In the first trial, the jury was properly instructed, but a postoccurrence videotaped statement of the only witness to the occurrence was improperly excluded. In the second and third trials, the videotaped statement was admitted, but the jury was improperly instructed on plaintiff's Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Failure to Protect claim. In the appeal of this third trial, the Seventh Circuit for the first time set out an appropriate issues instruction to be given in a Fourteenth Amendment due process failure to protect a pre-trial detainee case. In the appeal of this third case, the Circuit Court agreed that the trial court had improperly instructed the jury, but, nonetheless, sustained the defense verdict, holding that, as the plaintiff's thirdtrial arguments primarily concerned credibility, the trial court's instructional error was not material. The result of the three trials and the Circuit Court holding was that the plaintiff has never been given the opportunity to present the case with both the proper evidence (the videotape) and a proper Fourteenth Amendment Instruction concerning the failure to protect the pre-trial detainee plaintiff. In this case, the United States Court of Appeals erroneously failed to reverse the defense verdict by failing to send the case back for a new trial. The specific question presented is: