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Abstract: 

In a detention facility operated by the Donna Police Department in Donna, Texas, Jose Luis Garza died by suicide. His estate and survivors brought this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against a lone defendant, the City of Donna, alleging violations of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause in the time leading up to, and immediately following, Garza’s suicide. Garza illustrates how difficult it is for plaintiffs in a custodial suicide case. Officers did not do their job and a preventable, predictable death occurred—and, in fact, behaved in a cruel and negligent fashion— but when the issue is municipal liability, there is a requirement that there be a policy or custom or widespread practice that is attributable to a final policy making authority. Here, the district court granted summary judgment to the City, and in Garza v. City of Donna, 922 F.3d 626 (5th Cir. 2019), the appellate court affirmed.

Keywords: Municipal Liability

Affiliations:  1: Executive Editor.