From our private database of 37,500+ case briefs...
Butera v. District of Columbia
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
235 F.3d 637 (2001)
Facts
Eric Butera (plaintiff) was a former drug user who came forward to the Metropolitan Police Department (the city) (defendant) with information regarding a high-profile homicide. He gained such information by overhearing conversations at his drug dealer’s house. Butera agreed to act as a police informant and stage a drug deal so that police could pull off an undercover operation. One detective dropped Butera off at the back door of the dealer’s house and drove around to the front where Butera was to exit. Two other officers waited from a position where they also could not see Butera. Butera never made it inside the house as he was attacked and beaten to death by three men in the alley behind the house. His family brought a survival action against the city under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 as well as a wrongful-death action.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Rogers, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 631,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 37,500 briefs, keyed to 984 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.