SCOTUS won’t review lawsuit
Involves officer shooting of ‘Eddie’ Studdard
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a request from the Shelby County government to review a lawsuit related to the 2016 fatal officer-involved shooting of Edmond “Eddie” Otis Studdard.
The Supreme Court’s decision not to review the case keeps the lawsuit alive and clears a path for a March civil trial over the shooting.
In July 2016, Studdard was experiencing a mental health crisis and had cut himself with a blade when deputies shot him in Cordova. A bullet hit him in the neck and paralyzed him. He died in September of that year.
His widow, Angela Studdard, filed suit against the Shelby County government and other individuals involved, arguing her husband didn’t pose a threat to anyone but himself when deputies opened fire.
Lawyers for Shelby County asked federal courts to dismiss the lawsuit and grant legal protection for the deputies under a doctrine called qualified immunity.
Qualified immunity protects law enforcement officers from legal liability unless they clearly violate the law or someone’s constitutional rights.
U.S. District Judge Jon Mccalla rejected the county’s arguments in January 2019, ruling that police officers can’t shoot suicidal people who aren’t threatening anyone else.
Then the county asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to weigh in. In an August ruling, the appeals court agreed with the federal judge.
In November, the county government asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.
On Monday, the Supreme Court posted a one-word summary of its action online: “Denied,” it says. The court made no comment on the denial, a court staffer said.
Any Supreme Court review of the case was unlikely. Each year, the high court receives more than 7,000 requests for review and only accepts about 100 to 150 of them, according to a federal website on Supreme Court court proceedings.
“We will not be commenting on pending litigation,” deputy county attorney John Jones wrote in an email Monday.
An attorney for Angela Studdard, Daniel Seward, did not immediately return a phone call.
A blade and bullets
The chain of events leading to the lawsuit began in Cordova in July 2016, when Studdard argued with his father at the family ornamental metal business, drove his vehicle into his father’s vehicle, cut his wrists with a blade in a bathroom inside the business and walked away, according to court records.
Sheriff’s deputies soon caught up with Studdard on Big Orange Road, which is near Macon Road.
Two deputies fired shots. Studdard was hit in the neck and paralyzed and died in September 2016. He was 46.
The deputies involved were not wearing body cameras, and some facts in the case are disputed, including exactly how far Studdard was away from the deputies when shots were fired and whether he was moving toward them at the time.
Also disputed is the nature of the weapon he held in his hand: the county describes it as a knife, while the lawyer for Studdard’s widow has described it as a box cutter handle with no blade in it.
The Studdard case is now set to go to trial in federal court in Memphis on March 16 and is expected to last five to six days, according to online court records.
Another key issue in the case remains unresolved: who exactly is being sued.
Though the federal courts have allowed Angela Studdard to continue her lawsuit against the individual deputies who fired shots, Terry Reed and Erin Shepherd, Judge Mccalla agreed to dismiss the widow’s claim against the Shelby County government.
The judge agreed with the argument that Studdard’s team hadn’t provided evidence to support their claim that the county had failed to adequately train deputies.
Studdard’s attorney has asked the judge to reconsider the ruling and add Shelby County government back into the lawsuit.
Several similar cases are pending in federal court
The Studdard lawsuit is one of several civil suits related to Memphis-area officer-involved shootings currently pending in federal court. Another lawsuit involving a fatal shooting of an apparently mentally ill person by Shelby County Sheriff’s deputies, the 2017 killing of Nancy Jane Lewellyn, is ongoing.
Other pending lawsuits include a claim against the Memphis government over the 2015 fatal shooting of 19-yearold Darrius Stewart by a Memphis Police Department officer as well as a suit filed in relation to the MPD shooting of Martavious Banks, a man who was shot in September 2018 and survived.
Investigative reporter Daniel Connolly welcomes tips and comments from the public. Reach him at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.