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603 F.2d 521

Docket No. 78-3733

Greer v. Turner

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided Sept. 28, 1979.

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1979-09-28

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“The sole issue before this court in [the earlier] appeal was the voluntariness of the confession Greer made while being held in custody following his arrest. We accepted Greer’s argument that “there was no probable cause to arrest.or detain” him ... but concluded that [his confession was not the product of an illegal arrest]. Contrary to the district court’s conclusion, therefore, our disposition of Greer’s appeal did not resolve the false arrest and detention argument against Greer.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Greer v. Turner

Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))

Relies on Isbell Enterprises, Inc. v. Citizens Casualty Co. of New York · United States v. United States Gypsum Co. · United States v. Greer

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 1979-09-28

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently October 2012

5 federal appellate ·

6019791980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Summary Calendar.*

¶2Roderick M. Greer, pro se.

¶3Milton E. Belcher, Asst. Atty. Gen., Montgomery, Ala., for defendants-appellees.

¶4Before GOLDBERG, RONEY and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges.

¶6PER CURIAM:

¶7Roderick M. Greer is in the custody of the Attorney General, having been convicted of several federal criminal offenses, including bank robbery. Greer brought this civil rights suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1976) against three detectives on the Huntsville, Alabama police force and two FBI agents for falsely arresting and detaining him on March 3, 1977, shortly after a Huntsville bank had been robbed. The district court dismissed Greer’s complaint on the theory that Greer’s claim of false arrest and imprisonment had previously been disposed of adversely to him when we affirmed Greer’s conviction for robbing the bank. See United States v. Greer, 566 F.2d 472 (5th Cir.) *522(per curiam), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 1009, 98 S.Ct. 1881, 56 L.Ed.2d 891 (1978).

¶8The sole issue before this court in that appeal was the voluntariness of the confession Greer made while being held in custody following his arrest. We accepted Greer’s argument that “there was no probable cause to arrest or detain” him, id. at 473, but concluded that “[h]is confession was a result, not of his arrest, detention, and questioning, but of his realization that the police had evidence against him [acquired after his arrest] . . . and of his desire to make the best possible ‘deal’ for himself.” Id. at 474. Contrary to the district court’s conclusion, therefore, our disposition of Greer’s appeal did not resolve the false arrest and detention argument against Greer.

¶9The allegations of Greer’s complaint state enough against the city detectives, Turner, Petty and Norment, to withstand a motion to dismiss. As for the FBI agents, Frankenfield and Marx, however, it is not shown how their conduct constituted state action. Since the case must be remanded for further proceedings, it is unnecessary for us to speculate on what allegations, if any at all, might be sufficient to make out a case against the agents under section 1983.

¶10REVERSED and REMANDED for further proceedings.

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