Olsen v. Salter

Issue: Whether a police officer is liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for the nondisclosure of material exculpatory evidence, absent a showing of bad faith, and was such a right clearly established in 2003 with respect to a police officer who was investigating a shooting, and who inadvertently did not disclose to the prosecutor a larger version of a mugshot photo of an individual whom the defendant already knew and believed to be the “real shooter”; and (2) whether a police officer is liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violating the fair trial right of a criminal defendant when a criminal court permits a witness to make an in-court identification of the defendant following the officer’s overly suggestive pretrial witness identification procedure, and was such a right clearly established in 2003 with respect to a police officer conducting a single-photo show-up where: the identifying victim already knew the defendant he was identifying, neither the prosecutor nor trial judge expressed any constitutional concern, defense counsel did not object at trial to the identification evidence, and a three-judge panel ruled on direct appeal that even if the defendant had objected, the witness’s in-court identification of the defendant still would have been admissible without violating Salter’s constitutional rights.