This week, in #Hernandez et. al. v. City of Los Angeles (docket no. 21-55994), the US Court of #Appeals for the Ninth Circuit chipped away at the misguided #legal principle of #qualifiedImmunity. The case involved a female officer, Toni McBride, who put six bullets in a suspect—the last 2 of which were fired while the suspect was "rolling on the ground".
In a 6-5 en banc decision, the court overturned a 3-judge panel's ruling that qualified immunity protected (now former) Officer McBride, based on a horrifying 2017 precedent from Orange County in which a Sheriff's Department officer essentially executed a prisoner, firing six shots into him after he'd already been hit several times and was lying on the ground. (In the earlier case, Zion v. County of Orange, the officer then stomped on the mortally wounded suspect's head.)
It's always good news when cops are held to account for their actions.
