Rasanen v. Brown , 723 F.3d 325 ( 2013 )

12-680-cv
Rasanen v. Brown
1
2
3 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
4 FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
5
6 August Term, 2012
7
8 (Argued: February 28, 2013 Decided: July 19, 2013)
9
10 Docket No. 12-680-cv
11
12
13 Leroy J. RASANEN,
14
15 As administrator of the estate of John C. Rasanen, deceased,
16
17 Plaintiff-Appellant
18
19 – v. –
20
21 John Doe, Rhonda Roe, said names being fictitious and intended to represent all police
22 officers taking part in the occurrence that resulted in decedent's death, James W. Dewar,
23 John W. O'Brien, Keith M. Skala, Tyler R. Finn, Tammy M. Mickoliger, Rodney C. Polite,
24 Alan T. Brock, Michael Etherton, David H. Verne, Scott G. Dibble, Robert A. Buell, Paul
25 C. Antonovich, Timothy C. Pidgeon, Bartosz J. Chilicki, Michael A. Pellegrino,
26
27 Defendants,
28
29 Daniel BROWN
30
31 Defendant-Appellee.
32
33
34 Before: CALABRESI, Senior Circuit Judge, POOLER and RAGGI, Circuit Judges.
35
36 Appeal from a Decision and Order of the United States District Court for the
37 Eastern District of New York (Spatt, J.) denying plaintiff’s motion for a new trial pursuant
38 to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(a). In the underlying action, plaintiff alleged,
39 pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, that defendant, a New York State Police trooper, used
40 excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment. At the end of a jury trial, the jury
1
1 found for defendant. Plaintiff moved for a new trial based, among other reasons, on
2 alleged flaws in the jury instructions; the district court denied the motion. VACATED and
3 REMANDED.
4
5 Judge RAGGI dissents in a separate opinion.
6
7
8 HARRY H. KUTNER JR., Esq., Law Offices of Harry
9 H. Kutner Jr., Mineola, N.Y., for Plaintiff-Appellant.
10
11 WON S. SHIN, Assistant Solicitor General (Barbara D.
12 Underwood, Solicitor General, Cecelia C. Chang,
13 Deputy Solicitor General, of counsel) for Eric T.
14 Schneiderman, Attorney General of the State of New
15 York, New York, N.Y., for Defendant-Appellee.
16
17
18 CALABRESI, Circuit Judge:
19 Plaintiff-Appellant Leroy J. Rasanen is the father and estate administrator of John
20 C. Rasanen, who was shot and killed by Defendant-Appellee Daniel Brown, a New York
21 State Police trooper, during a (warranted) search of John Rasanen’s home. Plaintiff began
22 this action against Brown and others in May 2004. Plaintiff’s September 2004 amended
23 complaint alleged one cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and another for negligence.
24 Plaintiff’s § 1983 claim asserted that the fatal shooting of John Rasanen constituted
25 excessive force; his negligence claim alleged, in the alternative, that the shooting, as well as
26 the planning and execution of the search during which the shooting occurred, was
27 negligent.
28 A jury trial in the matter started on April 5, 2011. The district court had granted
29 summary judgment in March 2009 on the excessive force claim to all defendants except
2
1 Brown and Michael Etherton, who was with Brown at the time of the shooting. At trial,
2 plaintiff voluntarily dismissed the excessive force claim against Etherton, and the court
3 dismissed plaintiff’s negligence claims as a matter of law. There was no evidence, the court
4 reasoned, that any alleged negligence in planning the search was causally connected with
5 the shooting of John Rasanen, nor was there any evidence that the shooting was not
6 intentional. Thus, by the time the jury began its deliberations on April 27, 2011, the only
7 cause of action remaining was the excessive force claim against Brown.
8 On May 6, 2011, after more than seven days of deliberation, the jury returned a
9 unanimous verdict in favor of Defendant Brown. Soon thereafter, plaintiff moved for a
10 new trial under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59, alleging, inter alia, flaws in the jury
11 instructions. The district court denied that motion in a Decision and Order dated January
12 23, 2012. This appeal followed.
13 For reasons given below, we VACATE the judgment of the district court and
14 REMAND for a new trial.
15
16 BACKGROUND
17 Early in the morning of May 17, 2002, a mobile response team of the New York
18 State Police searched the Suffolk County, New York residence of John Rasanen. A warrant
19 authorized the team to look for cocaine, marijuana, drug paraphernalia, illicit proceeds,
20 and other contraband. The team consisted of Trooper Daniel Brown; his assigned partner,
21 Michael Etherton; and six other state troopers. The team had previously been told that
3
1 Rasanen had threatened police officers, and that he was armed, dangerous, and
2 unpredictable. The warrant allowed the team to enter Rasanen’s residence between 6 a.m.
3 and 9 p.m. A Crime Scene Attendance Log indicates that the first members of the team
4 entered the home at 5:53 a.m.
5 After entering the residence, the troopers fanned out, two by two, to secure the
6 building. Trooper Brown, followed by Trooper Etherton, went downstairs. Brown, who
7 carried a halogen flashlight in his left hand and a 9-mm. pistol in his right, kicked open the
8 door to a small bedroom, where he found Rasanen with a friend, Angela Chinnici.
9 Although members of the response team had been told that Rasanen was armed and
10 dangerous, that morning he was in fact unarmed, and from the waist up naked.
11 Brown was heavily-armored. He wore a military helmet, a face shield, an armored
12 vest, combat gloves and combat boots. He was larger than Rasanen by three inches and
13 more than sixty pounds. Moments after Brown entered the bedroom, he fired a single shot
14 into Rasanen’s chest. Rasanen died within minutes.
15 At trial, the two surviving eye-witnesses, Brown and Chinnici, recounted what led to
16 this shooting.
17 Brown testified that upon his first step or two into the bedroom, Rasanen charged
18 at him. As he held Rasanen back with his flashlight, Brown said, he felt his own gun being
19 turned against him. Brown was unsure whether Rasanen was using his hands or another
20 part of his body to turn the gun. When he felt the gun moving, Brown dropped the
4
1 flashlight, gained control of the gun, and fired. This happened, Brown said, “all at once”—
2 “in a matter of seconds.” Brown insisted that he shot Rasanen out of fear for his own life.
3 Angela Chinnici, for her part, testified that she was asleep next to Rasanen in his
4 bed when she was awakened by knocking on the front door upstairs. She then heard a
5 loud bang, followed by footsteps and cries of, “Police, get down!” Chinnici woke
6 Rasnanen and asked what was going on. Rasanen cursed, leapt out of bed, and closed the
7 bedroom door. He then paced from side to side in the space between the door and the
8 foot of the bed. As Chinnici heard the police coming down the stairs yelling “police” and
9 “get down,” she saw Rasanen drop something behind the television stand. Rasanen then
10 resumed pacing, some two to three feet from the bedroom door. The room, Chinnici said,
11 was dark and small.
12 Chinnici then saw the door open and Trooper Brown enter. Brown commanded
13 Rasanen and Chinnici to get down. Chinnici complied; Rasanen apparently did not.
14 Chinnici heard a loud pop, and saw a cloud of smoke. She did not see Rasanen lunge at
15 Brown or struggle with Brown for the trooper’s gun.
16 The jury began its deliberations on April 27, 2011. At one point, the jury asked the
17 district court to define the terms “negligence” and “deadly excessive force.” The district
18 court declined to define negligence because the negligence claim had been dismissed, and
19 the court refused to reinstate it. The district court defined “deadly excessive force” by
20 repeating its original charge on excessive force and adding the word “deadly” at various
21 places in the charge (the relevant portions of the charge are excerpted later in this opinion).
5
1 The jury additionally informed the court that it was considering a section of the New York
2 State Police administrative manual entitled “Use of Deadly Physical Force.” The court
3 directed the jury to certain other provisions of the manual, which it said were also relevant
4 to the jury’s deliberations.
5 On May 5, 2011, the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of Trooper Brown
6 on the excessive force claim. The district court denied plaintiff’s Rule 59 motion for a new
7 trial on January 23, 2012, and plaintiff timely appealed.
8 Before us, plaintiff-appellant argues that the district court erred (1) by failing to
9 instruct the jury with regard to the limited justifications for use of deadly force established
10 by the Supreme Court in Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 3, 11 (1985), and adopted by our
11 court in O’Bert ex rel. O’Bert v. Vargo, 331 F.3d 29, 36 (2d Cir. 2003); (2) by declining to
12 submit plaintiff’s negligence claims to the jury; and (3) by excluding from the jury’s
13 consideration the fact that Brown and others entered Rasanen’s residence a few minutes
14 sooner than the search warrant allowed (a per se constitutional violation, plaintiff
15 contends). Additionally, appellant contends that the jury’s verdict ran against the weight
16 of the evidence.
17
18 DISCUSSION
19 I.
20 Appellant’s contentions with regard to his negligence claim, the timing of the
21 search, and the weight of the evidence are unavailing.
6
1 With respect to the negligence claim, we find nothing in the record that
2 contravenes the district court’s conclusion that there was no evidence either that the
3 planning of the search contributed to Rasanen’s death, or that Brown shot Rasanen
4 unintentionally. Appellant asserts that the district court was wrong to rely on Brown’s
5 testimony that the shooting was intentional. But appellant failed to produce any evidence
6 to the contrary, and we see no reason, therefore, to revisit the district court’s dismissal of
7 the negligence claim.
8 With respect to the timing of the search, we agree with the district court that the
9 matter of premature entry is immaterial to the question of excessive force. Whether Brown
10 and his fellows entered Rasanen’s home sooner than the warrant allowed has no bearing
11 on whether Brown acted unreasonably when he shot Rasanen.
12 Finally, with regard to the sufficiency of the evidence, a district court’s denial of a
13 motion for new trial on weight-of-the-evidence grounds is not reviewable on appeal. Espinal
14 v. Goord, 558 F.3d 119, 131 (2d Cir. 2009); Stonewall Ins. Co. v. Asbestos Claims Mgmt. Corp.,
15 73 F.3d 1178, 1199 (2d Cir. 1995), modified on other grounds, 85 F.3d 49 (2d Cir. 1996).
16 Appellant’s only potentially viable claim on appeal, then, is his claim that the jury
17 instructions were erroneous. To this claim we now turn.
7
1 II.
2 A. The Jury Instructions
3 The district court instructed the jury with regard to excessive deadly force as
4 follows:1
5
6 With respect to this claim of deadly excessive force, you are instructed
7 that every person has the right not to be subjected to unreasonable or
8 excessive deadly force in the course of a search by a law enforcement officer,
9 even though such a search is otherwise made in accordance with the law.
10 In other words, even if there was a lawful search, the officer has no
11 right to use . . . excessive deadly force. Whether or not the force used in
12 conducting the search was unnecessary, unreasonable and violent is an issue
13 to be determined by you in light of all the surrounding circumstances. On
14 the basis of that degree of force, a reasonable and prudent police officer
15 would have applied in effecting the search under the circumstances disclosed
16 in this case.
17 Here, where the parties’ factual contentions are disputed, you must
18 consider the question of what events actually occurred. You must determine
19 whether the plaintiff proved that on May 17, 2002, the decedent, an
1
Amendments the court made in response to the jury’s questions about “the meaning of excessive deadly
force” are italicized.
8
1 unarmed man, was shot and killed unnecessarily by defendant, Daniel
2 Brown, or whether the shooting occurred during the course of his attacking
3 the police officer and trying to turn his gun against him, as the defendant
4 contends.
5 You must determine what circumstances actually occurred that early
6 morning in the basement bedroom where the incident occurred. The
7 question before you is whether the actions of the defendant [Trooper] Daniel
8 Brown, on May 17, 2002, was [sic] objectively reasonable.
9 The plaintiff said the actions were objectively unreasonable and has the
10 burden of proof as to that.
11 What does that mean? It means what a reasonably prudent police officer
12 would have done under similar circumstances in light of the facts and the
13 situation confronting him on that occasion, without regard to his underlying
14 intent or motivation. That means that evil intentions will not be excessive
15 force, deadly excessive force, if the force was in fact reasonable.
16 On the other hand, an officer’s good intentions will not make deadly
17 excessive force constitutional.
18 The reasonableness of a particular use of force must be—and deadly
19 force—judged from the perspective of a reasonable police officer on the scene
20 rather than the 20/20 vision of hindsight.
9
1 In answering these questions, namely, whether the deadly force used
2 by defendant, Daniel Brown, was reasonable, you should consider the facts
3 and circumstances as you find them to be, including how this confrontation
4 actually occurred and whether the decedent was resisting and was
5 threatening to reach the gun of the defendant, Daniel Brown.
6 In the course of his duty, a police officer, in making a search, as in
7 this case, may use only reasonable force, not excessive force.
8 The concept of reasonableness in this regard makes allowance for the
9 fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments in
10 circumstances that are sometimes tense, uncertain, dangerous and rapidly
11 evolving about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation.
12 That’s the best I can do as far as explaining what deadly force [means]. . . .
13
14 Appellant argues that the district court erred by failing to charge the jury in
15 accordance with the requirements established by the Supreme Court in Garner, 471 U.S. at16 3, 11, and adopted by our court in O’Bert, 331 F.3d at 36 (“It is not objectively reasonable
17 for an officer to use deadly force . . . unless the officer has probable cause to believe that
18 the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or
19 others.”).
20 Appellee contends that there was no error in the instructions because, under the
21 Supreme Court’s decisions in Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989), and Scott v. Harris,
10
1 550 U.S. 372 (2007), as well as our decision in Terranova v. New York, 676 F.3d 305, cert.
2 denied, 133 S. Ct. 414 (2012), there is no requirement that a special instruction regarding
3 the use of deadly force be given. Alternatively, appellee argues that any error in the
4 instruction was harmless.
5
6 B. Preservation
7 In general, we review challenges to jury instructions in civil cases de novo, “and will
8 grant a new trial if we find an error that is not harmless.” Sanders v. New York City Human
9 Res. Admin., 361 F.3d 749, 758 (2d Cir. 2004). If, however, the challenging party failed to
10 object to the charge at trial, we review for plain error, that is “if the error affects substantial
11 rights.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 51(d)(2).2
12 Appellee avers that appellant did not preserve his objection below; appellant rejoins
13 that he did. In support, appellant points to two passages in the transcript of the charge
14 conference. The first dealt directly with the excessive force charge:
15
2
Prior to 2003, we reviewed unpreserved objections to jury instructions in civil cases for “fundamental
error,” which we said was “more egregious than the ‘plain’ error that can excuse a procedural default in a
criminal trial.” Jarvis v. Ford Motor Co., 283 F.3d 33, 62 (2d Cir. 2002). Consistent with a 2003 amendment
to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 51(d), we have since employed a “plain error” standard, see Henry v.
Wyeth Pharm., Inc., 616 F.3d 134, 152 (2d Cir. 2010); Macquesten Gen. Contracting, Inc. v. HCE, Inc., 128 F.
App’x 782, 785 (2d Cir. 2005) (“The plain error standard replaces the more stringent ‘fundamental error’
standard that was employed in this Circuit prior to the 2003 amendment. . . .”), though invocations of the
earlier “fundamental error” standard have persisted. See S.E.C. v. DiBella, 587 F.3d 553, 569 (2d Cir. 2009).
In accordance with the language of the Federal Rules, we use “plain error” in what follows, though the
particular term used does not affect this case.
11
1 MS. SWEENEY (Assistant to Plaintiff’s Counsel): Can you explain when
2 deadly force is justified?
3 THE COURT: No.
4 MS. SWEENEY: If there is a threat of serious injury or—
5 THE COURT: No, I didn’t explain when deadly force is necessary. I don’t
6 know when it is necessary. If I had to do that, I would say going for a police
7 officer’s gun may very well be a situation where deadly force is necessary. So
8 I wouldn’t get into that.
9
10 The second statement came in the context of a dispute over the burden of proof:
11
12 MR. KUTNER (Plaintiff’s Counsel): They [the defendants] must prove
13 justification through deadly force under New York law, under the U.S.
14 Supreme Court standards, that deadly physical force can only be applied in
15 response or in defense of deadly physical force against the shooter, Trooper
16 Brown, or others in the immediate area.
17 So they would have the basis to prove justification as a defense. It’s
18 not part of ours.
19 Prima facie, we make out a case with a man in his pajamas being shot
20 by the police officer. It is their burden to—in thinking about it—it’s actually
21 Ms. Sweeney’s idea, and I compliment her for raising it. They have turned
12
1 the burden upside down. It’s their defense to prove this conduct was
2 objectively wrong. It’s not ours to prove the opposite.
3 THE COURT: Where did you get that from? What case says that?
4 MR. KUTNER: I’ll look it up overnight. But they didn’t raise it to say it’s
5 the other way.
6
7 Neither of these colloquies sufficed to preserve plaintiff’s objection. “A party who
8 objects to an instruction or the failure to give an instruction must do so on the record,
9 stating distinctly the matter objected to and the grounds for the objection.” Fed. R. Civ. P.
10 51(c)(1). Plaintiff did not do this. Plaintiff’s counsel never made clear that he objected to
11 the absence of a Garner/O’Bert instruction, never so much as cited either case, and never
12 explained why such an instruction was required. Indeed, plaintiff’s counsel elsewhere
13 expressed satisfaction with the excessive force instruction actually given.3
14 Later, when the district court proposed to respond to the jury’s request for a
15 definition of excessive deadly force by adding the word “deadly” to each instance of the
16 phrase “excessive force” in the original instruction, plaintiff’s counsel accepted the
17 amended charge.4 The law of this Circuit requires parties “to make a precise objection to
18 the supplemental instruction,” U.S. Football League v. Nat’l Football League, 842 F.2d 1335,
3
Plaintiff’s counsel explained that he “thought the Court’s charge was evenly balanced in instructing [the
jury] as to the nature or the definition of excessive force.” “I think the charge as read is sufficient,” he
added.
4
THE COURT: I’m going to repeat my charge . . . and I would say deadly excessive force. Just add the
word “deadly.” Any objection to that?
MR. KUTNER: No, your Honor.
13
1 1367 (2d Cir. 1988), as well as to the original instruction. Plaintiff in this case did neither,
2 and thereby failed to preserve his objection. This being so, we review the instruction given
3 by the district court for plain error.
4
5 C. Plain Error Review
6 We have long noted that the plain error exception to Rule 51’s objection
7 requirement “should only be invoked with extreme caution in the civil context.” Pescatore v.
8 Pan Am. World Airways, Inc., 97 F.3d 1, 18 (2d Cir. 1996). “To constitute plain error, a
9 court’s action must contravene an established rule of law,” Lavin-McEleney v. Marist
10 Coll., 239 F.3d 476, 483 (2d Cir.2001), and “go[] to the very essence of the case.” Anderson
11 v. Branen, 17 F.3d 552, 556 (2d Cir. 1994). For reasons that follow, we conclude that the
12 district court committed plain error by failing, in the circumstances of this case, to instruct
13 the jury concerning the justifications for the use of deadly force defined in Garner and
14 O’Bert.
15 Appellee argues that the district court was not required to instruct the jury with
16 regard to the Garner/O’Bert factors, and that therefore the instruction contained no error
17 at all, let alone plain error. We disagree. In a case involving use of force highly likely to
18 have deadly effects, an instruction regarding justifications for the use of deadly force is
19 required. The district court erred by failing to give one.
20 In Garner, the Supreme Court explained that “[w]here the officer has probable cause
21 to believe that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to
14
1 others, it is not constitutionally unreasonable to prevent escape by using deadly force.” 471
2 U.S. at 11. Absent such a perceived threat, the use of deadly force is constitutionally
3 unreasonable. Id. We embraced this standard in O’Bert, a decision in which we held that
4 “[i]t is not objectively reasonable for an officer to use deadly force to apprehend a suspect
5 unless the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of
6 death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.” 331 F.3d at 36. Like the case
7 before us, Garner and O’Bert both involved unarmed suspects who were shot to death by
8 law enforcement officers. These two cases clearly established that (a) absent the recognized
9 justifications, such shootings constitute excessive force, and (b) juries confronted with
10 similar fact patterns must be instructed accordingly.
11 More recently, the Supreme Court declined to apply the Garner analysis in a case in
12 which the “deadly force” used by law enforcement officers involved a car chase rather than
13 a gun shot. Scott, 550 U.S. at 381-82. The Court observed that “Garner did not establish a
14 magical on/off switch that triggers rigid preconditions whenever an officer’s actions
15 constitute ‘deadly force.’ Garner was simply an application of the Fourth Amendment’s
16 ‘reasonableness’ test.” Id. at 382.
17 Although the Supreme Court’s decision in Scott clarified that a special instruction
18 based on Garner is not necessary (or even appropriate) in all deadly-force contexts, we have
19 since made clear that this limitation does not apply in the original Garner context: the fatal
20 shooting of an unarmed suspect. In Terranova v. New York, another case involving a high-
21 speed car chase, we, of course, followed Scott in rejecting the appellants’ contention that
15
1 the district court, by failing to instruct the jury on the basis of the Garner/O’Bert factors,
2 had left jurors inadequately informed about the law.5 We noted that “absent evidence of
3 the use of force highly likely to have deadly effects, as in Garner, a jury instruction regarding
4 justifications for the use of deadly force is inappropriate, and the usual instructions
5 regarding the use of excessive force are adequate.” 676 F.3d at 309.
6 But as the same statement made clear, this limitation does not apply to cases in
7 which, “as in Garner,” there is “evidence of the use of force highly likely to have deadly
8 effects.” Id. In other words, Terranova’s holding that a Garner/O’Bert charge was not
9 needed in that case had a strong negative pregnant: in situations (such as those present in
10 Garner, O’Bert, and the case before us) where there is official use of force highly likely to
11 have deadly effects, a jury instruction regarding justifications for the use of deadly force is
12 required, and the usual (less specific) instructions regarding the use of excessive force are not
13 adequate. In such circumstances, the jury must be instructed, consistent with Garner and
14 O’Bert, that the use of force highly likely to have deadly effects is unreasonable unless the
15 officer had probable cause to believe that the suspect posed a significant threat of death or
16 serious physical injury to the officer or to others.
17 In the case before us, the officer intentionally fired at the chest of an unarmed, half-
18 clothed man from point-blank range. Certainly this was a “use of force highly likely” to
19 result in the suspect’s death. This being so, the district court was required to instruct the
5
“The present matter is easily distinguishable from Garner given the type of force used—a traffic stop as
opposed to firing a gun aimed at a person.” Terranova v. New York, 676 F.3d at 309.
16
1 jury with regard to the justifications for the use of deadly force articulated in O’Bert and
2 Garner. By failing to do so, the court committed error.
3 This error “contravene[d] an established rule of law,” Lavin-McEleney, 239 F.3d at
4 483, and was sufficiently serious as to undermine “the very integrity of the trial.” SCS
5 Commc’ns, Inc. v. Herrick Co., 360 F.3d 329, 343 (2d Cir. 2004). The entire trial turned on
6 whether Brown’s shooting of Rasanen was reasonable. That question was governed by
7 clear law. The district court was required to instruct the jury on the basis of that law, even
8 if the jury had not specifically asked for guidance on the matter. That the jury did ask for
9 such guidance—and did not receive it—underscores the fact that the district court’s failure
10 left the jury confused about the central issue in the case.
11 An error that “deprive[s] the jury of adequate legal guidance to reach a rational
12 decision” on a case’s fundamental issue constitutes plain error. Jarvis, 283 F.3d at 62
13 (internal quotation marks omitted). The district court committed such an error here. We
14 conclude that the court’s failure to instruct the jury on the basis of clearly established and
15 crucially relevant law fatally subverted the trial’s integrity.6
16 This would not be so if, as appellee contends, other facts rendered harmless the
17 district court’s failure to give a required instruction. Appellee asserts that the court’s actual
18 instruction—together with the copy of the New York State Police administrative manual
19 (which contained provisions relating to the Garner/O’Bert standard) that was given to the
6
The fact that Terranova’s reaffirmation of the Garner/O’Bert requirement came after this case, while it
explains the district court’s failure to give the charge, does not alter the fact that this failure constitutes
plain error. See infra.
17
1 jury—amounted to the functional equivalent of the instruction that should have been given.
2 We cannot agree.
3 The district court directed the jury: “You must determine whether the plaintiff
4 proved that . . . the decedent, an unarmed man, was shot and killed unnecessarily by
5 defendant, Daniel Brown, or whether the shooting occurred during the course of his
6 attacking the police officer and trying to turn his gun against him, as the defendant
7 contends.” Appellee suggests that the “whether/or” language of this sentence operates as
8 an exclusive disjunction tantamount to a Garner/O’Bert charge. To comply with the
9 charge, on this reading, the jury had to find either (a) that the killing of John Rasanen was
10 unnecessary—i.e. that it constituted excessive force—or (b) that Rasanen was killed while
11 attacking Brown and trying to turn the officer’s gun against him—i.e. that Brown had
12 probable cause to believe that Rasanen posed a serious threat of death or physical injury to
13 Brown or his companions. Appellee argues, then, that this portion of the charge tailored
14 the Garner/O’Bert standard to the facts of this case. Consistent with this section of the
15 instruction, appellee maintains, the jury could find for the defendant only if it found that
16 Brown shot Rasanen in the reasonable belief that Rasanen posed a serious threat of death
17 or physical injury to Brown or others. Appellee suggests that this instruction enforced the
18 substance, even if it did not employ the language, of the Garner/O’Bert requirements.
19 The problem with this reading is that it isolates a portion of the charge from the
20 instruction as a whole.
18
1 Appellee’s proposed reading assumes that a finding by the jury that Rasanen “was
2 killed unnecessarily” must translate automatically into a finding that Brown employed
3 excessive force. Whatever the abstract merits of such an inference, it does not follow when
4 one considers the charge as a whole. Other statements in the jury instruction dilute what
5 appellee would have us read as a strong disjunctive charge.
6 Elsewhere in the charge, for instance, the court instructed the jury to “consider the
7 facts and circumstances as you find them to be, including how this confrontation actually
8 occurred and whether the decedent was resisting and was threatening to reach the gun of
9 the defendant, Daniel Brown.” (emphasis added). This language implies that whether
10 Rasanen tried to turn Brown’s gun against him was one factor to be considered among
11 many, rather than the decisive factor on which the entire case turned. At the outset of the
12 charge, the court directed the jury to consider “that degree of force a reasonable and
13 prudent police officer would have applied in effecting the search under the circumstances.”
14 The instruction later stressed that “[t]he reasonableness of a particular use of [deadly] force
15 . . . must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable police officer on the scene rather
16 than the 20/20 vision of hindsight.” Moreover, the court added, “[t]he concept of
17 reasonableness in this regard makes allowance for the fact that police officers are often
18 forced to make split-second judgments in circumstances that are sometimes tense,
19 uncertain, dangerous and rapidly evolving about the amount of force that is necessary in a
20 particular situation.”
19
1 In light of these later statements, the charge as a whole gave the jury not two
2 options, but three. Consistent with the entire charge, the jury could find (a) that the
3 shooting was unnecessary, and therefore that it constituted excessive force; (b) that the
4 shooting was necessary—i.e. that it took place in the context of Rasanen’s trying to turn
5 Brown’s gun against him; or (c) that the shooting seemed necessary—i.e. that Rasanen was not
6 trying to turn Brown’s gun against him, but that Trooper Brown, making split-second
7 decisions without the benefit of hindsight, nonetheless acted reasonably under the
8 circumstances. The charge’s fatal defect is that the jury did not know, because it was not
9 told, that it could properly place the shooting in this last category only if it found that the
10 Garner/O’Bert requirements (dealing with fear of serious physical harm) were also met.
11 Had the jury been instructed, “You must find for the plaintiff unless you find that
12 Rasanen was shot after attacking Trooper Brown and trying to turn Brown’s gun against
13 him,” the charge would have more closely approximated the Garner/O’Bert standard.7
14 Indeed, such a charge might, in some ways, have been even more advantageous to plaintiff
15 than a clear statement of the Garner/O’Bert standard. But this hypothetical charge is not
16 the charge that was given. Even in isolation, the disjunctive instruction was not nearly so
7
We note that it still would not have been a fully proper substitute for a Garner/O’Bert charge. Even if the
jury found that Rasanen made a move for Brown’s gun, it could still find, in principle, that the shooting
was excessive—i.e. that Brown did not shoot Rasanen in the reasonable fear of serious physical injury to
himself or others. One can imagine a scenario in which the suspect is so small and weak, and the officer so
large and powerful, that even the suspect’s attempt to seize the officer’s gun would not justify the officer in
slaying the suspect. This might be extremely unlikely, but it is nonetheless a factual question that must be
submitted to the jury, not a question of law that can be presumed in the charge.
20
1 strong. Read in the context of the charge as a whole, that instruction was impermissibly
2 diluted.
3 This is so even though the district court informed the jury that certain provisions of
4 the New York State Police Administrative Manual—provisions that partly echo the language
5 of Garner and O’Bert—apply to this case. During its deliberations, the jury told the court
6 that it was considering a provision of the manual from a section entitled, “Use of Deadly
7 Physical Force,” which reads:
8
9 A Member may use deadly physical force against another person when
10 they reasonably believe it to be necessary to defend the Member or another
11 person from the use or imminent use of deadly physical force. N.Y.S.P.
12 Admin. Manual 16B1(A).
13
14 The jury asked whether certain other provisions applied to this case. The court replied that
15 some did apply and some did not. The provisions the court identified as applicable read as
16 follows:
17
18 Where feasible and consistent with personal safety, give some warning
19 other than a warning shot BEFORE using deadly force against another person.
20 N.Y.S.P. Admin. Manual 16B1(E).
21
1 Where feasible and consistent with personal safety use every other
2 reasonable alternative means BEFORE using deadly physical force against another
3 person. N.Y.S.P. Admin. Manual 16B1(F).
4 In considering the use of firearms, understand that YOU ALONE ARE
5 RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR ACTS, and that you may be required to justify
6 your acts in court. N.Y.S.P. Admin. Manual 16B1(H).
7
8 None of these provisions, nor all of them together, provides an adequate substitute for an
9 explicit Garner/O’Bert charge.
10 First, these provisions do not in fact capture the substance of the Garner/O’Bert
11 requirements. Subdivision 16B1(A) does contain language similar to that used in Garner
12 and O’Bert. But unlike the rule announced in those two cases, the manual provision is not
13 framed in exclusive and restrictive terms. The manual provides that officers “may use
14 deadly physical force . . . when they reasonably believe it to be necessary to defend
15 [themselves] or another person from the imminent use of deadly physical force.” It does
16 not say that officers may use deadly physical force only under such circumstances.
17 Second, even if the manual provisions had reproduced the Garner/O’Bert rule
18 verbatim, the court’s statement that those provisions merely “apply” to the case at hand
19 does not substitute for an instruction that the Garner/O’Bert rule is binding as a matter of
20 constitutional law. An administrative manual provision can “apply” to a case in many
21 different ways. In the case before us a reasonable juror might well find, on the basis of the
22
1 manual provisions just quoted, that Brown’s conduct departed from police protocol. But
2 that juror need not find, as a necessary corollary, that Brown’s conduct violated the
3 plaintiff’s constitutional rights.
4
5 III.
6 We conclude that, in the circumstances of this case—the close-range shooting of a
7 suspect by a law enforcement officer—the district court was required to instruct the jury
8 that it must find that this use of force was excessive “unless [the jury found that] the officer
9 ha[d] probable cause to believe that the suspect pose[d] a significant threat of death or
10 serious physical injury to the officer or others.” O’Bert, 331 F.3d at 36. The district court
11 did not give this charge, and—though it is a close question—we also conclude that it did not
12 give the functional equivalent of this charge.8 Because the Garner/O’Bert standard
13 governed the fundamental issue in the case—really the only issue in the case—the district
14 court’s failure to instruct the jury on the basis of that standard constituted plain error.
15 The district court’s reluctance to give a special charge on the use of deadly force is
16 perfectly understandable. The Supreme Court’s holding in Scott that such a charge is
17 inappropriate in some contexts might naturally have made district courts reluctant to give
8
The district court apparently did not intend to give the functional equivalent of a Garner/O’Bert charge.
When plaintiff’s counsel’s associate asked the court to “explain when deadly force is justified,” the court
answered, “I don’t know when it is necessary. If I had to do that, I would say going for a police officer’s gun
may very well be a situation where deadly force is necessary. So I wouldn’t get into that.” It seems, then,
that the Court did not intend to instruct the jury that it must find for plaintiff unless it found that Rasanen
tried to turn Brown’s gun against him. This would not matter, of course, if the charge the Court did give
amounted to the same thing. But it is consistent with our view that the charge was not the equivalent of
what is required.
23
1 such a charge even in other contexts. But, in our Circuit, whatever doubts Scott might have
2 raised about the necessity and appropriateness of a Garner/O’Bert charge in the context of a
3 deadly shooting were put to rest by Terranova.
4 In the case before us, of course, the district court instructed the jury before
5 Terranova was decided and amid the lingering uncertainty created by Scott. In the
6 meantime, however, that uncertainty has been dispersed. And we must review jury
7 instructions in light of the law as it stands at the time of appeal. United States v. Nouri, No.
8 09-3627-cr(L), 2013 WL 780918, at *6 (2d Cir. Mar. 4, 2013); United States v. Polouizzi, 564
9 F.3d 142, 156 (2d Cir. 2009).9 Under this current law, we find that the instruction given
10 to the jury in this case was plain error.
11
12 CONCLUSION
13 For the foregoing reasons we VACATE the decision of the district court and
14 REMAND for a new trial.
9
We have applied this rule in the civil, as well as the criminal, context. See Tirreno v. Mott, 375 F. App’x
140, 142 (2d Cir. 2010) (summary order).
24
12-680-cv
Rasanen ex rel. Estate of Rasanen v. Brown
REENA RAGGI, Circuit Judge, dissenting:
A panel majority concludes that there must be a new trial of plaintiff’s Fourth
Amendment excessive force claim against New York State Trooper Daniel Brown because
the district court failed to give the following instruction: “[T]he use of force highly likely
to have deadly effects is unreasonable unless the officer had probable cause to believe that
the suspect posed a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to
others.” Ante at [16]. The majority acknowledges that plaintiff never requested such a
charge at the initial charge conference or prior to a supplemental charge pertaining
specifically to deadly force. Nevertheless, it concludes that such an instruction is so clearly
mandated by Supreme Court and circuit precedent that its omission here was plain error. See
Fed. R. Civ. P. 51(d)(2). I disagree and, therefore, respectfully dissent.1
1. Waiver
To begin, it is by no means clear to me that we should review the purported charging
omission even for plain error. Before the district court, plaintiff did not simply fail to object
to the jury charge on the ground identified by the panel majority. Rather, it endorsed the
district court’s excessive force charge as “evenly balanced in instructing as to the nature of
excessive force” and “sufficient” for that purpose. Trial Tr. 2313. As we have observed,
1
I do, however, join the majority in rejecting plaintiff’s contentions with regard to its
negligence claim, the timing of the search leading to the fatal shooting, and the weight of the
evidence. See ante at [6-7].
“[s]uch endorsement” of a charge—even in a criminal case—“might well be deemed a true
waiver” of any subsequent challenge, “negating even plain error review.” United States v.
Hertular, 562 F.3d 433, 444 (2d Cir. 2009) (collecting cases).
2. Plain Error
Even absent true waiver, however, I do not think this case manifests plain error. The
legal standard for plain error is well known:
[A]n appellate court may, in its discretion, correct an error not raised at trial
only where the appellant demonstrates that (1) there is an error; (2) the error
is clear or obvious, rather than subject to reasonable dispute; (3) the error
affected the appellant’s substantial rights, which in the ordinary case means it
affected the outcome of the district court proceedings; and (4) the error
seriously affects the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial
proceedings.
United States v. Marcus, 130 S. Ct. 2159, 2164 (2010) (alterations and internal quotation
marks omitted); see Fed. R. Civ. P. 51 Advisory Committee Note to 2003 Amendments
(noting that plain error language in Civil Rule 51(d)(2) is “borrowed from Criminal Rule 52”
in order to capture decisions at law recognizing that unpreserved charging errors warrant
appellate review only in “exceptional circumstances”). Plaintiff here fails to satisfy these
requirements.
2
a. No Clear or Obvious Error
(1) Garner and O’Bert Do Not Clearly Establish a Charging Requirement
for Deadly Force Cases
Plaintiff cannot satisfy the first two requirements of plain error because no controlling
precedent clearly mandates that a district court charge a jury that a precondition to the use
of “force highly likely to have deadly effects is . . . probable cause to believe that the suspect
posed a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to others.” Ante
at [16]; see Henderson v. United States, 133 S. Ct. 1121, 1127 (2013) (recognizing plain
error to require “authoritative legal decision” on subject); United States v. Youngs, 687 F.3d
56, 59 (2d Cir. 2012) (“To be plain, an error of the district court must be obviously wrong
in light of existing law” (internal quotation marks omitted)).2
In concluding otherwise, the panel majority derives such a charging requirement from
the Supreme Court’s statement in Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985), that “[w]here the
officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm,
either to the officer or to others, it is not constitutionally unreasonable to prevent escape by
using deadly force,” id. at 11. See ante at [14-15]. Earlier in Garner, the Supreme Court had
cast this conclusion more restrictively, stating that, in attempting to apprehend an “apparently
2
Our concern on plain error review is not whether a district court might ever reference
such probable cause—or the facts demonstrating such probable cause—in charging a jury
considering an excessive force claim. Rather, we properly consider only whether such a
charge is mandated by clearly established law.
3
unarmed suspected felon,” deadly force “may not be used unless it is necessary to prevent
the escape and the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant
threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.” 471 U.S. at 3. We echoed
the latter formulation when referencing Garner in O’Bert ex rel. Estate of O’Bert v. Vargo,
331 F.3d 29 (2d Cir. 2003). There, we stated: “It is not objectively reasonable for an officer
to use deadly force to apprehend a suspect unless the officer has probable cause to believe
that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or
others.” Id. at 36.
To the extent such language might be construed to establish a “precondition” for the
use of deadly force, the Supreme Court has since ruled to the contrary in Scott v. Harris, 550
U.S. 372 (2007). “Garner did not establish a magical on/off switch that triggers rigid
preconditions whenever an officer’s actions constitute ‘deadly force.’” Id. at 382. Scott
counseled that “[w]hether or not [an officer’s] actions constitute[] application of ‘deadly
force,’ all that matters is whether [his] actions were reasonable.” Id. (emphasis added)
(disclaiming existence of “easy-to-apply legal test in the Fourth Amendment context,” and
concluding that, in any given case, court must “slosh . . . through the factbound morass of
‘reasonableness’”). Following Scott, two of our sister circuits have rejected challenges to
jury charges in deadly force cases that relied only on “the general rubric of reasonableness.”
Noel v. Artson, 641 F.3d 580, 587 (4th Cir. 2011); see Acosta v. Hill, 504 F.3d 1323, 1324
(9th Cir. 2007) (concluding that requirement of “deadly force instruction” in addition to
4
“excessive force instruction based on the Fourth Amendment’s reasonableness standard” was
“explicitly contradict[ed]” by and “clearly irreconcilable with” Scott (internal quotation
marks omitted)). In reaching a different conclusion here, the majority creates an unwarranted
circuit split.
Further undermining the suggestion that Garner and O’Bert clearly established a
charging requirement for excessive force cases is the fact that neither case references
probable cause in discussing how juries should be instructed to consider Fourth Amendment
challenges to the use of deadly force. Indeed, Garner arose in the context of a bench trial.
See 471 U.S. at 5. At issue was the constitutionality of a policy that allowed police to use
deadly force to prevent the escape of any felony suspect. See id. The Supreme Court ruled
that policy unconstitutional on its face, and because the only proffered justification for the
particular application of deadly force was to prevent escape, the Court’s decision of law left
no question of fact to be tried. See id. at 21. At issue in O’Bert was the denial of summary
judgment to a defendant who invoked qualified immunity to prevent his case from going
before a jury. In affirming the denial, this court did not suggest that the officer’s version of
events, in which he professed himself to be confronting resistance from an armed suspect,
raised any probable cause issue for trial. Rather, trial was necessary because the plaintiff
disputed the officer’s account, and “[o]n plaintiff’s version of the facts, in which [the officer]
shot to kill O’Bert while knowing that O’Bert was unarmed, it is obvious that no reasonable
5
officer would have believed that the use of deadly force was necessary.” O’Bert ex rel.
Estate of O’Bert v. Vargo, 331 F.3d at 40.
In context, then, the references to probable cause in Garner and O’Bert seem directed
more at courts than at juries, providing guidance as to which excessive force cases can be
decided as a matter of law and which require plenary trial. In other circumstances where the
Supreme Court has identified burdens of production and persuasion that inform a district
court’s identification of cases that should proceed to trial, we have observed that a jury “does
not need to be lectured on the concepts that guide a judge in determining whether a case
should go to the jury.” Gordon v. N.Y.C. Bd. of Educ., 232 F.3d 111, 118 (2d Cir. 2000)
(concluding that juries considering employment discrimination claims should not be charged
by reference to McDonnell Douglas framework). The same reasoning applied here further
prevents us from identifying any clearly established and, therefore, plain charging error in
this case.
Indeed, that conclusion is only reinforced by precedent generally cautioning against
the practice of using decisional language to charge juries in the absence of clear indications
that a reviewing court so intends. See Renz v. Grey Adver., Inc., 135 F.3d 217, 223 (2d Cir.
1997) (observing that juries can be misled when trial judges import into jury charges
language employed by appellate courts to guide judges); accord Gordon v. N.Y.C. Bd. of
Educ., 232 F.3d at 118; see also 9C Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal
Practice & Procedure § 2556 (3d ed. 2008) (stating that it “is not helpful” to juries for trial
6
courts “to take quotations from the opinions of appellate courts, never intended to be used
as instructions to juries, and [to] make these a part of the charge”). This caution is
particularly warranted with respect to a concept such as probable cause for at least two
reasons. First, a jury “acts only as a fact-finder,” Gordon v. N.Y.C. Bd. of Educ., 232 F.3d
at 118, and once any disputed facts are resolved, probable cause is a question of law, see
Walczyk v. Rio, 496 F.3d 139, 157 (2d Cir. 2007). Thus, even where a question of probable
cause is relevant to a jury’s resolution of a civil claim—and not simply a gateway for
identifying cases that warrant trial—a district court may well decide not to present it to the
jury but to ask only that the jury decide the existence of those facts that would establish
probable cause. See Walczyk v. Rio, 496 F.3d at 157 (collecting cases); cf. Lore v. City of
Syracuse, 670 F.3d 127, 162 (2d Cir. 2012) (identifying error in district court’s “having the
jury decide the ultimate legal question” of qualified immunity “[i]n light of its factual
findings”). Second, the charge that the majority purports to derive from Garner and
O’Bert—i.e., that deadly force to effectuate an arrest is impermissible “unless the officer has
probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious
physical injury to the officer or others”—risks confusing juries as to the burden of proof,
which in excessive force cases rests only with the plaintiff. See Nimely v. City of New York,
414 F.3d 381, 390 (2d Cir. 2005); Davis v. Rodriguez, 364 F.3d 424, 431 (2d Cir. 2004); see
also Miller v. Taylor, 877 F.2d 469, 470 (6th Cir. 1989) (rejecting claim that burden of proof
7
shifts to defendant in deadly force cases); Edwards v. City of Philadelphia, 860 F.2d 568, 572
(3d Cir. 1988) (same).3
In this case, as in O’Bert, there was no question that Rasanen’s excessive force claim
had to proceed to the jury. Brown claimed that he shot Rasanen while struggling to regain
control of his own gun after Rasanen had lunged at the officer and Brown felt his gun pointed
against him. Such a scenario plainly demonstrated “probable cause to believe that the
suspect pose[d] a threat of serious physical harm.” Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. at 11; see
generally Florida v. Harris, 133 S. Ct. 1050, 1055 (2013) (describing probable cause as
“practical,” “common-sensical,” “all-things considered” standard for assessing probabilities
in particular factual context); Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 231–32, 238 (1983)
(recognizing probable cause as “fluid” standard that does not demand “hard certainties” but
only the sort of “fair probability” on which “reasonable and prudent men, not legal
technicians, act”). Plaintiff never contended otherwise. Instead, it maintained that forensic
evidence and inconsistencies in witnesses’ accounts showed that Brown had concocted the
gun-struggle story and, in fact, had unnecessarily shot and killed an unarmed man. If the jury
were to accept plaintiff’s version, then “no reasonable officer would have believed that the
3
On this appeal, plaintiff does not challenge the district court’s charging it with the
burden of proof on excessive force. See Appellant’s Br. 2 (arguing that trial evidence “far
surpassed [plaintiff]’s burden of proof”).
8
use of deadly force was necessary.” O’Bert ex rel. Estate of O’Bert v. Vargo, 331 F.3d at
441.
The district court properly focused the jury on this determinative factual dispute.
First, the court correctly charged the general Fourth Amendment principle that “[w]hether
or not the force used in conducting the search was unnecessary, unreasonable and violent is
an issue to be determined by you in light of all the surrounding circumstances, on the basis
of that degree of force a reasonable and prudent police officer would have applied in
effecting the search under the circumstances disclosed in this case.” Trial Tr. 2507, 2566.
But then the trial court told the jury that it “must determine” what “actually occurred,”
specifically, “whether the plaintiff proved that on May 17, 2002, the decedent, an unarmed
man, was shot and killed unnecessarily by defendant Daniel Brown or whether the shooting
occurred during the course of his attacking the police officer and trying to turn his gun
against him as the defendant contends.” Id. at 2508, 2567–68. This disjunctive statement
of the parties’ positions was sufficient to ensure that, if the jury returned a verdict for Brown,
it did so consistent with the Fourth Amendment standard of reasonableness discussed in
Garner and Scott. Indeed, as previously observed, plaintiff’s counsel professed this charge
to be “evenly balanced” and “sufficient” to instruct the jury on the “nature” and “definition
of excessive force under Section 1983 and the Fourth Amendment.” Id. at 2313.
In nevertheless insisting that Garner and O’Bert support a finding of plain error here,
the majority attempts to cabin Scott to its facts. It submits that even if Scott, a case where
9
deadly force was administered by a motor vehicle, does not require a “probable cause”
instruction in all deadly force cases, such an instruction is still required when the agent of
deadly force is a firearm. See ante at [15-16]. The majority cannot, however, claim that
Scott itself makes such a conclusion plain. Indeed, Scott’s emphasis on the “particular
situation” in which “a particular type” of deadly force was used in Garner precludes lumping
all shooting cases together. The shooting of a fleeing suspect in the back as he tried to run
away from the police, as in Garner, is hardly the same “particular situation” as the shooting
of a suspect who lunges toward the officer and turns his gun against him. This distinction
signals caution in the application of “rigid preconditions” for determining reasonableness in
deadly force cases generally, even those involving shootings. Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. at
382.
Indeed, far from distinguishing among deadly force cases, Scott instructs that a single
legal standard applies to all excessive force cases, deadly or otherwise: “Whether or not [an
officer’s] actions constitute[] application of ‘deadly force,’ all that matters is whether [his]
actions were reasonable.” Id. This is a “factbound” determination that requires “‘balanc[ing]
the nature and quality of the intrusion on the individual’s Fourth Amendment interests
against the importance of the governmental interests alleged to justify the intrusion.’” Id.(quoting United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 703 (1983)).
(2) Terranova Does Not Clearly Establish a Charging Requirement for
Deadly Force Shooting Cases
10
The majority maintains that, even if Scott does not plainly establish the need to charge
a probable cause precondition for the use of deadly force in police shooting cases, our own
precedent, specifically Terranova v. New York, 676 F.3d 305 (2d Cir. 2012), does. See ante
at [24] (stating that “whatever doubts Scott might have raised about the necessity and
appropriateness of a Garner/O’Bert charge in the context of a deadly shooting were put to
rest by Terranova”). It is no mean feat for the majority to reach such a conclusion from
Terranova, a case that rejected an argument that a district court had erred when, after Scott,
it refused to supplement its jury charge on the objective reasonableness standard of the
Fourth Amendment with a requested instruction as to Garner’s preconditions for the use of
deadly force. See Terranova v. New York, 676 F.3d at 308–09. The majority nevertheless
derives a requirement to charge a probable cause precondition in deadly force shooting cases
from the fact that Terranova, like Scott, involved vehicles, and that this court therein stated:
“We therefore conclude that, absent evidence of the use of force highly likely to have deadly
effects, as in Garner, a jury instruction regarding justifications for the use of deadly force is
inappropriate, and the usual instructions regarding the use of excessive force are adequate.”
Id. at 309. The majority explains that the phrase “absent evidence of the use of force highly
likely to have deadly effects” is “a strong negative pregnant,” ante at [16]—apparently so
strong as to establish as the controlling law in this circuit that
in situations (such as those present in Garner, O’Bert, and the case before us)
where there is official use of force highly likely to have deadly effects, a jury
instruction regarding justifications for the use of deadly force is required, and
11
the usual (less specific) instructions regarding the use of excessive force are
not adequate. In such circumstances, the jury must be instructed consistent
with Garner and O’Bert, that the use of force highly likely to have deadly
effects is unreasonable unless the officer had probable cause to believe that the
suspect posed a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the
officer or to others.
Id. (emphasis in original). The conclusion does not bear close scrutiny.
First, as courts have long recognized, “negative pregnants” are hardly reliable
indicators of either law or fact. See Brooks v. Kyler, 204 F.3d 102, 108 (3d Cir. 2000)
(“[D]rawing instruction from Supreme Court passages through the use of the negative
pregnant is risky and unsatisfactory.”); United States v. Pilot Petroleum Assocs., Inc., 122
F.R.D. 422, 423 n.1 (E.D.N.Y. 1988) (McLaughlin, J.) (observing that “vice . . . known as
the negative pregnant” has been “source of judicial irritation [since] before Columbus
discovered America,” and citing to authority from reign of Henry VI); see also Cool v.
United States, 409 U.S. 100, 108 (1972) (Rehnquist, J., joined by Burger, C.J., and
Blackmun, J., dissenting) (criticizing reversal on ground that instruction contained negative
pregnant as “smack[ing] more of scholastic jurisprudence” than of “commonsense” appellate
review). That alone is reason not to recognize a negative pregnant as the source of
established law supporting a finding of plain error.
Second, what Terranova stated in the sentence at issue was that, in the circumstances
of that case, absent “force highly likely to have deadly effects,” a special instruction on
justification for deadly force was “inappropriate.” 676 F.3d at 309. At best, the attached
12
negative pregnant leaves open a possibility that, in other circumstances, where the use of
force is highly likely to have deadly effects, such a justification instruction might be
appropriate. But see Capitol Records, Inc. v. Naxos of Am., Inc., 372 F.3d 471, 480 (2d Cir.
2004) (noting “logical fallacy of assuming that the inverse of a proposition is true” (citing
Raymond J. McCall, Basic Logic 125–26 (2d ed. 1952)). In any event, there is a very long
distance in the law between what may be appropriate as a matter of judicial charging
discretion and what is constitutionally required—a distance too long, I think, to allow for the
identification of a plain charging error here.
Third, even if Terranova’s negative pregnant could be stretched to the point of
establishing a charging requirement for excessive force shooting cases, such a
pronouncement would be dictum, as it was unnecessary to decide the case at hand. See
Baraket v. Holder, 632 F.3d 56, 59 (2d Cir. 2011) (stating that what “distinguishes holding
from dictum” is “whether resolution of the question is necessary for the decision of the case”
(citing Seminole Tribe v. Florida, 517 U.S. 44, 67 (1996)); see also Cohens v. Virginia,
19 U.S. 264, 399–400 (1821) (Marshall, C.J.) (contrasting “question actually before the
Court,” which is “investigated with care, and considered in its full extent,” with other cited,
but “seldom completely investigated,” principles). Such dictum cannot establish law and,
13
therefore, does not support a finding of plain error. See, e.g., United States v. Whren,
111 F.3d 956, 960–61 (D.C. Cir. 1997).4
In sum, Garner, O’Bert, Scott, and Terranova do not make it clear and obvious that
juries in all excessive force shooting cases must be charged that there is a probable cause
precondition to the use of deadly force. Thus, the district court’s asserted failure to give such
a charge in this case cannot be deemed plain error.
b. Effect on Substantial Rights
The third element of plain error, an adverse effect on a party’s substantial rights,
generally requires a reasonable probability that the error affected the outcome of the
proceeding. See United States v. Marcus, 130 S. Ct. at 2164. Plaintiff cannot make this
showing because the excessive force claim here turned on a dispute of fact: Brown claimed
that he shot Rasanen in the course of a struggle, while plaintiff claimed that the struggle story
was concocted. Plaintiff never suggested that, even if there had been a struggle, it would
have been unreasonable for Brown to have shot Rasanen. See Trial Tr. 2470 (arguing on
rebuttal summation that Brown invented “false story” about struggle because, otherwise,
there would have been “no good reason” to have used deadly force). Because a suspect’s
4
Indeed, further undermining the suggestion that Terranova can be construed to
“establish” a different Garner rule for shooting cases is its own reliance on a shooting case,
Penley v. Eslinger, 605 F.3d 843 (11th Cir. 2010), for the conclusion that none of the Garner
“‘conditions are prerequisites to the lawful application of deadly force,’” Terranova v. New
York, 676 F.3d at 309 (quoting Penley v. Eslinger, 605 F.3d at 850).
14
decision to run directly at an armed officer in close quarters undoubtedly demonstrates
probable cause for a reasonable officer to believe that the suspect posed a significant threat
of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others, plaintiff cannot show that the
omission of a Garner-derived deadly force charge in this case had any effect on the outcome
of the trial.
In concluding otherwise, the majority points to the district court’s instruction telling
the jury to “consider the facts and circumstances as you find them to be, including how this
confrontation actually occurred and whether the decedent was resisting and was threatening
to reach the gun of the defendant.” Id. at 2509, 2567–68. The majority hypothesizes that the
word “including” might have misled the jury into thinking that the existence of a struggle for
the gun was simply one factor to consider in its deliberations, and not the sole justification
advanced for Brown’s use of deadly force. I disagree. The point of the quoted language was
to instruct the jury that their ultimate determination of reasonableness required them to
consider all facts and circumstances. See Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. at 383 (referencing
“factbound” nature of reasonableness inquiry). The district court had already made clear to
the jury that, in deciding what “actually occurred,” the parties were disputing two possible
scenarios. Thus, the jury had to “determine whether the plaintiff proved that on May 17,
2002, the decedent, an unarmed man, was shot and killed unnecessarily by defendant Daniel
Brown or whether the shooting occurred during the course of his attacking the police officer
and trying to turn his gun against him, as the defendant contends.” Id. at 2508, 2567–68.
15
When the “including” reference is placed in the context of a charge that thus ascribed a
specific justification argument to Brown that satisfied Garner, see Crigger v. Fahnestock &
Co., 443 F.3d 230, 235–36 (2d Cir. 2006), I think it clear that any Garner charging omission
was necessarily harmless.
Nor am I persuaded to reach a different conclusion from the majority’s suggestion that
the challenged charge afforded the jury “not two options, but three.” Ante at [20]. The
majority highlights sections of the charge instructing that the reasonableness of the use of
deadly force “must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable police officer on the scene
rather than the 20/20 vision of hindsight,” Trial Tr. 2508, 2551, and that reasonableness
allows for the fact that officers must often make “split-second judgments in circumstances
that are sometimes tense, uncertain, dangerous and rapidly evolving about the amount of
force that is necessary in a particular situation,” id. at 2509; see id. at 2551. The majority
submits that when the disjunctive scenario instruction is viewed together with these, the jury
could find
(a) that the shooting was unnecessary, and therefore . . . excessive . . . ; (b) that
the shooting was necessary—i.e. that it took place in the context of Rasanen’s
trying to turn Brown’s gun against him; or (c) that the shooting seemed
necessary—i.e. that Rasanen was not trying to turn Brown’s gun against him,
but that Trooper Brown, making split-second decisions without the benefit of
hindsight, nonetheless acted reasonably under the circumstances.
Ante at [20] (emphasis in original). The majority concludes that the “fatal defect is that the
jury did not know, because it was not told, that it could properly place the shooting in this
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last category only if it found that the Garner/O’Bert requirements (dealing with fear of
serious physical harm) were also met.” Id. (emphasis in original). I cannot agree.
There is no plausible view of the record that would allow the jury to reach either the
second or third posited conclusion without finding that Brown reasonably believed he was
engaged in a struggle for control of his gun. In the second scenario, Brown’s belief would
have been correct; the third scenario admits the possibility of reasonable mistake. That
difference is irrelevant to the probable cause requirement urged by the majority. See Texas
v. Brown, 460 U.S. 730, 742 (1983) (explaining that probable cause does not demand that
officer’s good-faith belief “be correct or more likely true than false”); see also Penley v.
Eslinger, 605 F.3d 843, 853 (11th Cir. 2010) (affirming judgment for officers on claim that
they used excessive force by shooting student waving toy gun).
The majority further submits that, even if the jury found that Rasanen actually tried
to gain control over Brown’s gun, a jury could conclude that the shooting was excessive
because “[o]ne can imagine a scenario in which the suspect is so small and weak, and the
officer so large and powerful, that even the suspect’s attempt to seize the officer’s gun would
not justify the officer in slaying the suspect.” Ante at [20 n.7] The majority does well to
characterize this scenario as “extremely unlikely.” Id. A discharged bullet’s homicidal
potential does not, after all, depend on the physical size of the person pulling the trigger. In
any event, I think that the majority here conflates the questions of probable cause and
reasonableness. See generally Davis v. Little, 851 F.2d 605, 607–08 (2d Cir. 1988)
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(distinguishing concepts). If the jury found, as its verdict suggests it did, that it was
objectively reasonable for Brown to think that Rasanen had engaged him in a struggle in
which the control of his firearm was at stake, then any difference in size between the two
men would not be enough for plaintiff to show that a “reasonable and prudent” officer in
such a struggle could not have thought that there was at least a “fair probability” that he
faced a serious threat of physical harm. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 231–32, 238. Whether
other circumstances might nevertheless permit a jury to conclude that the use of deadly force
was excessive even in the face of such a probable threat depends on a balancing of the
competing individual and government interests that inform reasonableness. See Scott v.
Harris, 550 U.S. at 383–84. That balancing is not our concern here. The evidence, viewed
in the light most favorable to the jury verdict, was sufficient to support a finding of
reasonableness. To the extent we consider only whether the district court’s failure to
supplement its reasonableness charge with a probable cause instruction affected the outcome
of the case, I am satisfied by a jury verdict that necessarily found facts satisfying probable
cause that there was no prejudice.5
5
Insofar as plaintiff’s counsel submitted a post-verdict affidavit recounting jurors’
purported misunderstanding as to excessive force in their deliberations, plaintiff expressly
disavows reliance on these alleged conversations on appeal, a course compelled by Fed. R.
Evid. 606(b) (precluding inquiry into jury deliberations).
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c. Fairness, Integrity, and Public Reputation of Judicial Proceedings
Because I identify no clear or obvious error in the district court’s failure to give a
Garner-based deadly force instruction, and because I, in any event, identify no prejudice to
plaintiff therefrom, I necessarily conclude that the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of
judicial proceedings would not be called into question by allowing the challenged judgment
to stand.
In sum, because plaintiff fails to satisfy any of the requirements for plain error, I
respectfully dissent from the majority decision to vacate judgment and order retrial in this
case.
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