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Sherrod v. Berry, 856 F.2d 802, 57 USLW 2168, 26 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 875

Facts

On December 8, 1979, Officer Willie Berry responded to a robbery report and, believing he was apprehending an armed suspect, stopped a vehicle containing Ronald Sherrod and another individual. During the stop, Sherrod failed to comply with commands to raise his hands, which heightened Officer Berry's suspicion. As Berry approached the vehicle, he observed Sherrod make a quick movement towards his coat, prompting Berry to shoot and kill him. The subsequent investigation revealed that Sherrod was unarmed at the time of the shooting.

On December 8, 1979, the operator of Ziggy's Plant and Gift Shop in Joliet, Illinois, reported to the police that a robbery had just taken place.

Issue

The main legal issues were whether the evidence that Ronald Sherrod was unarmed was relevant to the determination of Officer Berry's objective reasonableness in using deadly force and whether the trial court erred in admitting this evidence.

Defendants urge this court to reverse the jury's verdict, arguing that the trial court's receipt of evidence demonstrating that Ronald Sherrod was unarmed when Officer Berry discharged his weapon is not relevant to the question of whether Officer Berry reasonably believed that the use of deadly force was justifiable at the time of the shooting.

Rule

The court applied the 'objective reasonableness under the circumstances' standard to evaluate the use of deadly force by law enforcement officers, emphasizing that the assessment should be based solely on the information available to the officer at the time of the incident.

In Lester v. City of Chicago, 830 F.2d 706 (7th Cir.1987) this court applied an 'objective reasonableness under the circumstances' standard to Fourth Amendment excessive force and arrest claims.

Analysis

The court determined that the trial court's admission of evidence regarding Sherrod being unarmed was improper because it introduced information that was not available to Officer Berry at the time he made the decision to use deadly force. The court emphasized that the reasonableness of Berry's actions should be judged based on his perceptions and the circumstances known to him at the moment of the shooting, rather than on facts discovered afterward.

Thus, we are convinced that the objective reasonableness standard articulated in Lester requires that Officer Berry's liability be determined exclusively upon an examination and weighing of the information Officer Berry possessed immediately prior to and at the very moment he fired the fatal shot.

Conclusion

The Court of Appeals reversed the initial jury verdict and remanded the case for a new trial, ruling that the trial court had erred in admitting evidence that was irrelevant to the officer's state of mind at the time of the shooting.

For the afore-mentioned reasons, we reverse and remand this case for further proceedings in the district court consistent with this decision.

Who won?

The prevailing party was Officer Berry and the other defendants, as the appellate court ruled in their favor by reversing the jury's verdict and remanding for a new trial.

The record of the first trial substantiates Officer Berry's testimony that he fired at Sherrod because he reasonably believed in the split second he had to react to Sherrod's furtive, rapid movement, that he and his partner were in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm.

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