…when a direct path to #justice is blocked, #states need to find a work-around. The federal prosecution of the #Minneapolis officers responsible for #GeorgeFloyd’s death offers a model. E.G., officers Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, & Alexander Kueng were held criminally liable for acts beyond the killing. 1st, they failed to provide medical assistance to Floyd as he was dying. 2nd, Lane & Kueng made misleading omissions, while Kueng also lied to investigators in the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s death.
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Drilling down on these facts reveals specific paths forward for #state #prosecutors even when a direct investigation is blocked.
Evidence of these 2 kinds of #crimes has already emerged in the 2 recent #ICE killings. After #ReneeGood was shot, ICE agents blocked a physician from aiding her. #Minnesota #law not only imposes misdemeanor liability for failures to aid in general, but in #shooting cases obligates the person who fired the wounding shot to “render immediate reasonable assistance.”
When a #shooting victim then dies, penalties in #Minnesota for failing to aid the injured person can involve up to 2 yrs imprisonment.
In l #AlexPretti’s case, the #obstruction of key #evidence-gathering steps gives #state #prosecutors another potent opening, especially because #ICE agents acted in overt defiance of a #judicial #warrant. Minnesota has a #criminal #ObstructionOfJustice statute that applies to situations in which someone prevents officers from carrying out official duties.
You don’t get much more official than executing a #judicial #warrant. Concealing #evidence after the fact is a separate offense that also fits what is publicly known about both the #ReneeGood & #AlexPretti cases. The resulting #criminal penalties would attach to anyone who conspired in that concealment. This could reach more senior figures in the #Trump admin who acted to hinder #justice by using #lies & #slander to deflect responsibility &—worse—to score political points from the deaths.
#Minnesota, & other #BlueStates, should also enact new laws that make #federal #obstruction harder. The #AlexPretti case shows that #ICE officials were willing to ignore a #state-court #warrant. Perhaps anticipating that, Minnesota officials went to federal court on Saturday, potentially after the scene of Pretti’s #shooting had been compromised, & obtained a temporary restraining order about #evidence preservation. The legal basis for such orders, however, may be fragile.
#Minnesota & other #states would thus do well to shore up their capacity to get a rapid federal-court injunction against #EvidenceTampering. For technical reasons, there is a specific way to make sure this possibility is always available∶ Enact a #law that allows a state’s atty to seek damages of >$75k against anyone who has violated the constitutional rights of a MN citizen. Then allow the state’s atty to file suit in federal court, & to expeditiously seek a bench warrant to preserve #evidence.
In practical effect, this would be a device to transform ICE’s #obstruction into not just a violation of #state #law, but also of a #federal-court order.
#Criminal #liability by its nature comes too late to stop harms from happening. #States such as #Minnesota should also look to #CivilLaw as a basis for stopping baleful & unlawful #ICE tactics. This also requires some creative thinking—taking a legal tool designed for other purposes & fitting it to our new reality.
Many #states have what’s called a public-nuisance #law. This allows the state to go to court & get an injunction against the use of a property in ways that disrupt life for many around it, such as, for example, if a quarry produces noise & vibrations that make it hard for those in the neighborhood to sleep, or if the odors of a feedlot make using a particular street intolerable.
#States have reached beyond this sort of historical usage recently, employing public-nuisance laws creatively even when the problem is not tied to one specific piece of land. For instance, they have brought public-nuisance suits against opioid makers, gun sellers, companies responsible for lead contamination, & Confederate monuments. Public-nuisance #law has proved a malleable stopgap when other kinds of regulation fail.
