5/18/18
By: Ivana Hrynkiw
Source: AL.com
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is asking the nation’s highest court to review the case of a black man who was killed by police in Alabama by tasing.
According to the petition from the LDF, the group is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse an appeals court decision that ruled the officers responsible for Khari Illidge’s death were entitled to relief from an excessive force claim. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the officers were entitled to summary judgment.
The repeated taser use violated taser guidelines and police training, the LDF said in a press release. According to the release, an officer on the scene testified the only reason for Illidge to be tased after he was on the ground would have been to cause the 25-year-old pain and “shut down his nervous system.”
The petition says the Supreme Court should review the case and reverse the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision because “it goes against… precedent holding that police can use force during arrest only if it serves a legitimate purpose,” the LDF said in a press release.
Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel at LDF, said in a press release that the court should review the case and make a correct ruling. “Officers responded to an unarmed black man in mental health crisis by using extreme force that had no purpose other than to inflict pain. Using force in this way serves no legitimate law enforcement purpose…,” she said.
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