11th Circuit Tosses Taser Case; YouTube Video of Incident Lets Viewers Judge
A video showing a motorist who was jolted three times with a Taser as he sat on the ground crying has ended up on YouTube (Video) after a lawsuit over the incident was tossed by a federal appeals court.
The 2-1 Sept. 9 unpublished decision (PDF) by the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that a deputy’s tasering of the handcuffed suspect was not an excessive use of force that violates the Constitution, according to the Fulton County Daily Report. The motorist, financially destitute and homeless, had refused to sign the speeding ticket and would not stand up. He began sobbing and told the officer to arrest him.
The case spurred a strong dissent by U.S. District Judge Beverly Martin, sitting by designation, who suggested the video of the incident be posted along with the court’s opinion. “The Fourth Amendment forbids an officer from discharging repeated bursts of electricity into an already handcuffed misdemeanant—who is sitting still beside a rural road and unwilling to move—simply to goad him into standing up,” she wrote.
In a Sept. 10 post, blogger Howard Bashman of How Appealing noted Martin’s dissent. “It appears that her suggestion has not convinced the 11th Circuit to make the video available over its website,” he wrote. “Perhaps the lawyers for the plaintiff will post the video to YouTube.”
Bashman got an e-mail Tuesday night notifying him that the video was being placed on YouTube. He calls the video “quite disturbing” and says it “certainly demonstrates that the dissenting judge had legitimate grounds for the passionate nature of her dissent.”
