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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether a man who served 24 years in prison before his murder conviction was overturned can sue a former Los Angeles County district attorney and a top deputy prosecutor for violating his civil rights.
Thomas Goldstein was convicted of a 1979 murder on the strength of a jailhouse informant's testimony that Goldstein had confessed to the crime. The informant testified that he received no benefit in return, but evidence that came to light later suggesting he had struck a deal to get a lighter sentence.
Individual prosecutors typically may not be sued for their decisions, but Goldstein sued former District Attorney John K. Van de Kamp, who later became California attorney general, and his former chief deputy, Curt Livesay, claiming that as supervisors they had a policy of relying on jailhouse informants even though it sometimes led to false evidence.
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