The Legal Aid Society has filed an amicus brief calling for an end to the qualified immunity doctrine, which protects officials from lawsuits brought by individuals whose rights have been violated by abusive and racist policing.

The brief was filed in the case of Adrian Thomas v. City of Troy on behalf of the plaintiff. Mr. Thomas was coerced into a false confession by police under extreme circumstances and spent six years in prison before a higher court overturned his conviction. He was found not guilty at a second trial. However, when Mr. Thomas brought a civil suit against the officers, it was dismissed due to qualified immunity.

“This case illustrates the unjust effect of qualified immunity, as the district court dismissed Adrian Thomas’s civil rights case, despite the state’s highest court overturning his criminal conviction because officers coerced Thomas to give an involuntary, false confession,” said Alex Lesman, an attorney with the Special Litigation Unit in the Criminal Law Reform Team at The Legal Aid Society.

“Not only should this decision be reversed, allowing his civil rights case to continue, the appeals court should also call on the United States Supreme Court to put an end to qualified immunity, which was built on a flawed foundation, causes confusion among lower courts, and leads to such unjust results,” he continued. “Qualified immunity not only disregards the harm that plaintiffs like Mr. Thomas suffer, it also signals to officers that their abhorrent conduct is acceptable, further eroding the public’s respect for police and the judicial system.”