Point of Law: ECW Use and Qualified Immunity

A Wyoming case involving an officer using an electronic control weapon during an arrest is critically important for helping you understand when you can legally use your TASER.
A Wyoming case involving an officer using an electronic control weapon during an arrest is critically important for helping you understand when you can legally use your TASER.
Johnny Wheatcroft and his family sued the city of Glendale, then-Officer Matthew Schneider and two other officers in 2018, claiming Schneider repeatedly used a TASER on Wheatcroft after he was handcuffed and detained following a traffic stop.
In his ruling, Senior U.S. District Judge Graham Mullen said Kerl probably made errors on the day of the shooting. But under the law, he said, they were reasonable ones, making her immune to the claims in the lawsuit.
The court overturned the lower-court decisions without ordering full briefing and argument, a sign it did not see them as close calls. There were no dissents.
Among the issues that lawmakers were discussing were changes to "qualified immunity" that protects police officers from some lawsuits.
Gov. Gavin Newsom now has 12 days to sign or veto the bill, which passed the California Assembly with a vote of 46 to 18 on Friday. It was previously passed in the state Senate on May 26 with a vote of 26 to 9.
It is unclear if a police reform proposal without changes to qualified immunity could pass the House, where progressive Democrats like Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), a former Black Lives Matter activist, have called the removal of qualified immunity a redline.
A pursuit in a building ended with a suspect falling out of a window, officers using force, and a lawsuit.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would ban chokeholds, require that deadly force only be used as a last resort in arrests, and effectively end qualified immunity.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed a bill Wednesday ending qualified immunity for all government workers, including police. New Mexico is the first state to end qualified immunity for all public employees.
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