Perhaps this Pennsylvania jury considered that it was steering things down the middle with its result:
Five Bethlehem police officers used excessive force to restrain a man high on crack cocaine who killed a drug dealer with a samurai sword and set him on fire, a federal jury ruled Tuesday night.
… [Sonny] Thomas, 50, who testified he suffered bruises and recurring migraine headaches as a result of the violent scuffle, sought $35 million in damages but was awarded $1….
Thomas testified he had smoked 12 rocks of crack cocaine during the four hours before stabbing [19-year-old Carlos] Garcia more than 80 times with a 4-foot-long samurai sword.
Police, who arrived at the grisly scene to find Garcia’s body set ablaze with the sword sticking out of it, said Thomas ignored an order to surrender, while Thomas countered that he put up no resistance but was beaten anyway. While finding five of the police officers at the scene responsible for excessive force, the jury exonerated five others. The federal judge who presided over the trial, John Fullam, called the jury’s verdict “remarkable”. (Matt Birkbeck, “Samurai killer wins police brutality case, $1 award”, Allentown Morning Call, Nov. 29). For more on “one-dollar” verdicts by juries in excessive-force cases filed by criminals, see my 1994 City Journal article on New York’s “mugger millionaire” case.
4 Comments
One would like to think that this signifies the turning of the tide!
Even if the reward was $1, how the hell did the jury find this guy credible enough in the first place to find the officers used excessive force? Honestly I don’t trust cops that much, but I think I trust them more than a guy who just smoked crack, killed his dealer, then set the corpse on fire.
I gotta agree with the above post. If this dirtball can get around on his own two feet then he didn’t suffer any meaningful excessive force relative to the situation.
Since he won is the state/city still liable for the cost of his attorney? If so he cost the city more than 1 dollar.