Civil Liberties

Federal Court Allows Civil Rights Case Against Baltimore Cop Who Inspired a Character on The Wire

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At the Maryland Appellate Blog, Jonathan Biran reports on a recent federal court ruling that centers on two subjects near and dear to the hearts of libertarians: alleged police misconduct and David Simon's acclaimed HBO series The Wire. Biran writes:

On September 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued an opinion in Owens v. Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office et al., largely vacating a lower court's dismissal of a [federal civil rights] action brought by James Owens seeking damages for wrongful conduct by Baltimore City police officers and an assistant state's attorney that, Owens alleges, resulted in his spending more than two decades in prison for a rape and murder he didn't commit. If Owens can prove his allegations of intentional suppression of exculpatory evidence by police, it will be a tremendous black eye for the Baltimore City Police Department and perhaps in particular for Jay Landsman, a former BCPD detective sergeant who lent his name to a character in HBO's The Wire and who also acted in that series.

Read the rest here.

(Thanks to How Appealing for the link.)

Click below to see why Reason TV recently named The Wire one of the "5 best libertarian TV shows ever."