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09-571, HARRY F. CONNICK, ET AL. v. JOHN THOMPSON

QUESTION PRESENTED FOR REVIEW

A municipality may be liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for a failure to train employees that shows deliberate indifference to, and actually injures, the rights of citizens.  City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 389-91 (1978).  A history of employee wrongdoing is ordinarily necessary to prove failure-to-train liability, but a single incident may suffice in rare cases.  The Court has hypothesized only one—a failure to train armed police officers on using deadly force.  The question presented in this case is:

Whether failure-to-train liability may be imposed on a district attorney’s office for a prosecutor’s deliberate violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), despite no history of similar violations in the office.

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