The U.S. Supreme Court Monday refused to hear a case by the Gibbons family hoping to revive a lawsuit against a New Jersey state trooper who fatally shot Willie Gibbons, a mentally ill man holding a gun to his own head during an encounter in 2011. The case never went before a jury and the officer was granted qualified immunity, the Gibbons family attorney said, because he said he believed he had the right to shoot.
The decision raises a number of questions about qualified immunity, which protects law enforcement and other government workers from liability in certain circumstances.
