Carl M. Murdock, Jr. v. Wanda Robinson

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[DO NOT PUBLISH]

In the

United States Court of Appeals

For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 21-13616

____________________

CARL M. MURDOCK, JR.,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

versus

MONTGOMERY COUNTY ALABAMA, et al.,

Defendants,

WANDA ROBINSON,

individually and in her capacity as

Director of Montgomery County Detention Center,

BARBARA PALMER,

individually and in her capacity as

Assistant Director of Montgomery County Detention Center,

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2 Opinion of the Court 21-13616

Defendants-Appellants.

____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Middle District of Alabama

D.C. Docket No. 2:16-cv-00444-RAH-SMD

____________________

Before JORDAN, LAGOA, and ED CARNES, Circuit Judges.

ED CARNES, Circuit Judge:

Carl Murdock, Jr. was held in pretrial detention for forty-

eight days before he received his initial appearance hearing. Mur-

dock sued Wanda Robinson and Barbara Palmer (the director and

then-assistant director of the detention facility) under 42 U.S.C.

§ 1983, alleging that they were deliberately indifferent to his con-

stitutional rights because they did not inform the court as soon as

they allegedly learned that he was past due for his hearing. Robin-

son and Palmer appeal the district court’s denial of their motion for

summary judgment based on qualified immunity.

I. Background

In 2010 the Montgomery County Circuit Court Clerk’s Of-

fice issued a warrant for Murdock’s arrest, apparently for his failure

to appear for a probation “review.” (At the time, Murdock was on

probation after being convicted of second-degree theft of prop-

erty.) When Murdock learned about the warrant he met with his

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21-13616 Opinion of the Court 3

probation officer, who assured him that “everything was squared

away” and that he was “free to go.” He went about his life. But

more than four years later, on June 19, 2014, officers served Mur-

dock with the arrest warrant. They took him to the Montgomery

County Detention Facility where he was booked, fingerprinted,

and held without bond.

According to the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure and

Montgomery County Detention Facility practice, which are con-

sistent with federal due process requirements, a few things are sup-

posed to happen when someone is processed into the detention fa-

cility. First, the detention facility clerk receives and timestamps the

detainee’s booking paperwork (the arrest warrant, final disposition

sheet, and commitment form). On the morning of the next busi-

ness day, someone from the detention facility clerk’s office walks

those documents over to the circuit court clerk’s office. Upon re-

ceiving the booking paperwork, the circuit court clerk generates a

“booking” list (or “first call” list), which is a list of the detainees

that the clerk’s office wants brought over to court for their initial

appearances. Once that list is prepared, a court security officer

walks it back over to the detention facility, where facility staff then

prepare the named detainees for transport. A pretrial detainee ar-

rested pursuant to a warrant is supposed to appear before a judge

“without undue delay” and “in no event later than seventy-two (72)

hours after arrest.” Ala. R. Crim P. 4.3(b)(2).

In this case, facility staff delivered Murdock’s booking paper-

work to the circuit court clerk on June 20, 2014, the day after his

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4 Opinion of the Court 21-13616

arrest. But for some reason, Murdock was not taken before a judge

within seventy-two hours of his arrest. In fact, he wouldn’t be

taken before a judge for another forty-seven days.

During intake Murdock had received a copy of the detention

facility’s inmate handbook. The handbook explains that inmates

can make miscellaneous requests by filling out “inmate request

forms” and placing them in their cellblock mailbox. It also advises

inmates that they can “voice any grievance to the Jail Administra-

tion” by putting their grievances “in writing on the Inmate Griev-

ance Form” and placing them in the mailbox. According to the

handbook, the “Administration will give prompt and fair consider-

ation to any grievance and will take appropriate action when war-

ranted.”

Colonel Wanda Robinson, director of the detention facility,

testified that after being submitted inmate request forms are col-

lected from cellblock mailboxes and sent to the detention facility’s

booking area where a clerical officer, sergeant, or lieutenant will

address them. According to Robinson, if a detainee uses an inmate

request form to ask when his court date is, the “norm” is that

“somebody will call over” to the court to find out the date and will

then write it on the request form and return a copy to the inmate

with the original being put into the inmate’s “file folder.” As for

grievance forms, the jail has a grievance clerk who is responsible

for collecting, sorting, investigating, and either responding to the

forms or distributing them to the appropriate officials for response.

For example, grievance forms complaining about food are

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delivered to those responsible for food service, who then provide a

written response. Detention facility policy directs the grievance

clerk to promptly forward any grievance “requiring expedited con-

sideration” to an “official at a level capable of immediately correct-

ing the situation.”

Sometimes inmates are able to pass their requests and griev-

ances directly to jail administration. Robinson testified that part of

her job as director is to “walk the jail,” “talk to the inmates,” and

“deal with grievances.” She explained that sometimes she “get[s]

inmate request forms requesting information from [her]” when

she walks the jail. Major Barbara Palmer, then the assistant director

of the facility, likewise testified that she would walk the floor of the

jail “at least three times a week,” carrying a pencil and paper with

her so that she could jot down and address any issues brought to

her attention by the inmates.

Toward the end of June 2014, when Murdock had been de-

tained for more than a week and realized that he was not being

scheduled for a court appearance, he filled out an inmate request

form. During his deposition, he testified that in the form he “stated

what — what [his] situation was” and asked “to talk to somebody.”

His testimony makes clear that his “situation” was not having re-

ceived an initial appearance hearing. He addressed the form to

Robinson and put it in the cellblock mailbox, but he never received

any response.

In early July Murdock began asking corrections officers for

grievance forms. According to him, the officers usually ignored his

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6 Opinion of the Court 21-13616

requests or told him that they didn’t have the forms. That changed

in mid-July, when an unidentified officer brought Murdock a griev-

ance form and another officer that Murdock knew from junior col-

lege brought him a blank document titled “Motion to the Court.”

On July 14, 2014, Murdock filled out the grievance form. The griev-

ance form is not in the record, but Murdock testified that he ad-

dressed it to no one in particular and wrote “something” about

“Gestapo tactics to pick [him] up off the street and hold [him].”

That particular form does not play a critical role in this matter.

But another form does. The form that plays a critical role is

the “Motion to the Court” requesting an attorney, a bond hearing,

and a preliminary hearing. Murdock testified he filled out the mo-

tion the same day, July 14, as the grievance form. And he placed

both in the cellblock mailbox that same day. Murdock also testified

that he “watched” both documents sit in the mailbox for three days

before they were collected, although a file stamp on the motion to

the court indicates that it was filed with the circuit court on July 16,

which was two days after he filled it out.

On July 18, 2014, the circuit court granted Murdock’s mo-

1

tion and set a “sentencing” hearing for August 6. At that hearing

the circuit judge issued an order for Murdock’s immediate release.

She also gave Murdock a letter addressed to his employer

1

The circuit court judge who presided over Murdock’s case was on

vacation for the month of July.

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explaining that he was arrested “due to a clerical error” and that

the arrest warrant “should never have been issued.”

Murdock never received a response to his grievance form.

Robinson and Palmer assert that they have no record of Murdock’s

inmate request form, describing his lack of a hearing, or his griev-

ance form, and they deny receiving either.2 Murdock never spoke

directly to Robinson or Palmer about his situation; he admitted that

he “never talked to” them at all.

During his forty-eight-day detention, Murdock missed four

paychecks, his car was repossessed, he defaulted on a loan, and his

roommate sold some of his personal belongings to pay rent.

Murdock sued Robinson and Palmer under 42 U.S.C. § 1983

for alleged violations of his Fourteenth Amendment due process

rights. 3 Specifically, Murdock alleged that Robinson’s and Palmer’s

2

Robinson testified that if the inmate request form or grievance form

had been put in the cellblock mailbox, the original form or a copy of it would

have been put in Murdock’s inmate file. Detention facility policy requires the

grievance clerk to send a detainee a written receipt “indicating the time and

date the Grievance Clerk received the complaint.” But the jail does not have

any record of either form being filed, and Murdock does not have a copy of

either form.

3

Murdock initially alleged violations of his Fourth, Fifth, and Four-

teenth Amendment rights. He later conceded that the Fifth Amendment does

not apply to his claims. The district court concluded that Murdock’s claims

are properly analyzed under the Fourteenth rather than the Fourth Amend-

ment because he challenges the sufficiency of the process he received during

his detention. See West v. Tillman, 496 F.3d 1321, 1327 (11th Cir. 2007); Cannon

v. Macon County, 1 F.3d 1558, 1562–63 (11th Cir. 1993); cf. Case v. Eslinger, 555

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8 Opinion of the Court 21-13616

actions and inactions constituted deliberate indifference to his con-

stitutional rights, and he alleged that they are liable in their super-

visory capacity based on their adoption of “careless and reckless

polices, customs, and practices” that led to the constitutional viola-

tions. 4 He also brought a false imprisonment claim against Robin-

son and Palmer under Alabama law.

Robinson and Palmer moved for summary judgment, con-

tending that they are entitled to qualified immunity on Murdock’s

constitutional claims and state law immunity under Alabama Code

§ 14-6-1, which extends certain immunities to jailers, on his false

imprisonment claim. At a hearing on the motion for summary

judgment, the district court tried to drill down on whether Robin-

son or Palmer had actual knowledge of Murdock’s prolonged de-

tention. The court asked counsel for both defendants the following

question about Murdock’s inmate request and grievance forms:

F.3d 1317, 1330 (11th Cir. 2009). The parties do not dispute that determina-

tion; their arguments focus on whether Murdock has shown a Fourteenth

Amendment violation. Any arguments related to Fourth Amendment viola-

tions have been forfeited. See Rowe v. Schreiber, 139 F.3d 1381, 1382 n.1 (11th

Cir. 1998).

4

Robinson and Palmer argue that they were sued based on only “their

responsibility for the conduct of the employees at the jail, and their final poli-

cymaking at the jail,” and not based on their personal involvement in the un-

derlying constitutional violation. We disagree. In addition to his supervisory

liability claim, Murdock proceeded on the theory that Robinson and Palmer

directly caused, through their own “actions and inactions,” his prolonged de-

tention despite his repeated request for a hearing, which “represents a deliber-

ate indifference to [his] rights.”

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21-13616 Opinion of the Court 9

“Let’s assume [Murdock] had filled out one of these forms. To

whose attention are those typically brought? . . . Would that get on

the radar screen of any of the defendants who have been named in

this case?” Defense counsel responded:

No. It depends on what the form says. For instance,

if the form had said, [“]I’m not getting medical atten-

tion,[”] it would have gone to our medical people.

Just depends on what the form said. In this case, if he

had said in the form, [“]I’m not getting my 72-hour

hearing,[”] I’m certain that would have gone to the atten-

tion of the director or at least the assistant director.

Doc. 86 at 36 (emphasis added). Counsel did not attempt to retract

or explain away that answer in the district court, not even after the

district court relied on it to deny her clients summary judgment.

Counsel’s first attempt to refute that statement came in the defend-

ants’ initial brief on appeal.

As mentioned, the district court denied Robinson and

Palmer qualified immunity on Murdock’s deliberate indifference

claim and his claim alleging unconstitutional policies, customs, or

practices. Relying in part on defense counsel’s representation at

the motions hearing, the court concluded that a jury could reason-

ably find that Robinson and Palmer received Murdock’s requests

for a hearing, and that by ignoring those requests they acted with

deliberate indifference towards Murdock’s constitutional rights.

For the same reason, the court denied Robinson and Palmer state

law immunity from Murdock’s false arrest claim. Robinson and

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10 Opinion of the Court 21-13616

Palmer interlocutorily appeal the part of the district court’s order

denying them qualified and state law immunity.

II. Standard of Review

We review de novo whether we have jurisdiction. Tillis ex

rel. Wuenschel v. Brown, 12 F.4th 1291, 1296 (11th Cir. 2021). We

also review de novo a denial of qualified immunity at summary judg-

ment, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-

moving party. Id. Summary judgment is appropriate “if the mo-

vant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact

and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.

R. Civ. P. 56(a).

III. Qualified Immunity

Robinson and Palmer contend that they are entitled to qual-

ified immunity on Murdock’s § 1983 deliberate indifference claim

and his § 1983 claim premised on their liability as jail supervisors.

Qualified immunity shields government officials from civil

liability “as long as their conduct violates no clearly established stat-

utory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would

have known.” Lee v. Ferraro, 284 F.3d 1188, 1193–94 (11th Cir. 2002)

(quotation marks omitted). In general, officials are entitled to qual-

ified immunity when they are acting within the scope of their dis-

cretionary authority. Id. at 1194. But a plaintiff can rebut that enti-

tlement by showing that (1) the officials violated a federal statutory

or constitutional right and (2) it was clearly established at the time

that the officials’ conduct was unlawful. Id. We may analyze those

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21-13616 Opinion of the Court 11

two prongs in either order. See Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 236

(2009).

The parties do not dispute that Robinson and Palmer were

acting within their discretionary authority. So to defeat their qual-

ified immunity defense Murdock must show that a reasonable jury

could find that they violated his constitutional right and that his

right was clearly established when they violated it. See Lee, 284 F.3d

at 1194. The district court found that Murdock had made both of

those showings and accordingly denied Robinson and Palmer qual-

ified immunity.

Before we can undertake our own review of those questions,

we make some preliminary observations.

First, we need to refine the issue to fit the alleged facts. The

only period of delay or denial that is relevant to Murdock’s deliber-

ate indifference claims is the roughly-two-week period between the

end of June 2014, when Murdock says that he put his inmate re-

quest form in the cellblock mailbox, and July 14, 2014, when Mur-

dock put his grievance form and court motion in the cellblock mail-

box. That’s the only stretch of time during which either Robinson

or Palmer could have been deliberately indifferent to Murdock’s

constitutional rights.

Here’s why that’s true. From the period between June 20,

2014, when the detention center timely notified the clerk’s office of

Murdock’s detention, and the end of June, when Murdock first no-

tified court staff that he had not received his initial appearance, only

the circuit court clerk’s office or that state court itself — and not

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12 Opinion of the Court 21-13616

anyone at the detention center — dropped the ball and could be

responsible for delaying Murdock’s initial hearing. On June 20,

2014, the day after Murdock’s arrest, the detention center staff did

exactly what they were supposed to do and notified the circuit

court clerk’s office that Murdock had been arrested, was being de-

tained, and needed to have his initial appearance hearing. Mur-

dock’s counsel has acknowledged that as of June 20, 2014, the cir-

cuit court clerk’s office knew that Murdock was at the jail “by vir-

tue of having received the arrest warrant” from the detention cen-

ter on that date.

If the clerk’s office and the state court had done their jobs,

there would have been a timely first appearance hearing and no

constitutional violation by anyone. But there is no record of Mur-

dock’s name having ever appeared on any first call list that the

court sent to the detention center after the court received notice of

Murdock’s detention on June 20. Murdock himself is also partly

responsible for some of the delay because there’s no evidence or

allegation that he did anything to bring his situation to the atten-

tion of anyone, including Robinson or Palmer, until he put his in-

mate request form in the cellblock mailbox at the end of June. Un-

til Murdock put that form there at the end of June, neither Robin-

son nor Palmer could have known that he had not had an initial

hearing.

As for the period of time after July 14, which is the date that

Murdock says he put his grievance form and court motion in the

cellblock mailbox, the record shows that jail staff promptly

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21-13616 Opinion of the Court 13

responded to the concerns Murdock raised in those forms. The

filing stamp on Murdock’s court motion indicates that the motion

made it to the clerk’s office on July 16, just two days after Murdock

submitted the forms to jail staff. Robinson and Palmer cannot be

deliberately indifferent to Murdock’s constitutional rights for the

period of time after receiving Murdock’s grievance form if, as soon

as Murdock filed his grievance, their staff addressed Murdock’s

concerns by ensuring that his court motion was passed on to the

circuit court.

That leaves the period of time between the end of June,

when Murdock says he first notified jail staff about his prolonged

detention without an initial appearance, and July 14, when jail staff

received and acted on Murdock’s grievance form and court mo-

tion. That is the only period of time during which Robinson and

Palmer could reasonably be found to have been deliberately indif-

ferent.

We turn now to some concessions made by defense counsel

in the district court and at oral argument, and the effect of those

concessions.

In addition to showing an “objectively serious” harm, a

plaintiff claiming deliberate indifference must show that the de-

fendant prison official “actually knew that his conduct — his own

acts or omissions — put the plaintiff at substantial risk of serious

harm.” Wade v. McDade, 106 F.4th 1251, 1253 (11th Cir. 2024) (en

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14 Opinion of the Court 21-13616

banc).5 At the district court hearing on Robinson and Palmer’s

summary judgment motion, defense counsel conceded for sum-

mary judgment purposes that she was “certain” that a form com-

plaining of not receiving an initial appearance within 72 hours

“would have gone to the attention of the director [Robinson] or at

least the assistant director [Palmer].” The district court accepted

that factual concession and relied on it to find a genuine dispute as

to whether Robinson and Palmer had actual knowledge of Mur-

dock’s prolonged detention such that they could have been delib-

erately indifferent to his constitutional rights.

Robinson and Palmer disclaimed that statement for the first

time in their briefing to us, arguing that it is contrary to the record

evidence. But the district court was entitled to take at face value

counsel’s emphatic statement of fact about the detention facility’s

procedures and the probable result of them in reaching its conclu-

sion about the defendants’ subjective knowledge. See I.L. v. Ala-

bama, 739 F.3d 1273, 1284 (11th Cir. 2014) (“The district court and

the plaintiffs alike were entitled to rely on Alabama’s factual con-

cession that taxes would rise if the court enjoined enforcement of

Amendment 373 and to believe, given that concession, that no fur-

ther evidence on the issue was needed.”); see also In re Grand Jury

Investigation, 842 F.2d 1223, 1225 (11th Cir. 1987) (explaining that

5

Murdock must also show “subjective knowledge of a risk of serious

harm” for his deliberate indifference claim premised on Robinson’s and

Palmer’s liability as jail supervisors. See Keith v. DeKalb County, 749 F.3d 1034,

1047–48 (11th Cir. 2014).

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“[h]aving conceded” during a hearing on a motion for a protective

order in the district court that an attorney-client relationship ex-

isted, “the government cannot argue now that [the movant] failed

to prove the existence of that relationship”).

Importantly, defense counsel never sought in the district

court to retract or modify that statement. Even after the district

court issued its order denying summary judgment that relied in

large part on her concession, defense counsel did not file a motion

to alter or amend or otherwise reconsider the order. She did not

try to recant or retract her statement until this appeal, and as we’ve

said many times, “[a]rguments raised for the first time on appeal

are not properly before this Court.” Access Now, Inc. v. Sw. Airlines

Co., 385 F.3d 1324, 1331 (11th Cir. 2004) (quotation marks omitted)

(adding that appellate review of a new issue is especially inappro-

priate when it involves fact finding); see also FTC v. AbbVie Prods.

LLC, 713 F.3d 54, 65 (11th Cir. 2013). Indeed, “too often our col-

leagues on the district courts complain that the appellate cases

about which they read were not the cases argued before them.”

Access Now, Inc., 385 F.3d at 1331 (alteration adopted) (quotation

marks omitted). And if we were to relieve defense counsel from

her concession in this case, a complaint like that would be appro-

priate.

This situation brings to mind the invited error doctrine.

“The doctrine of invited error is implicated when a party induces

or invites the district court into making an error.” United States v.

Silvestri, 409 F.3d 1311, 1327 (11th Cir. 2005) (quotation marks

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16 Opinion of the Court 21-13616

omitted). “[I]t is a cardinal rule of appellate review that a party may

not challenge as error a ruling or other trial proceeding invited by

that party.” Id. (quotation marks omitted). In other words, “[a]

party that invites an error cannot complain when its invitation is

accepted.” Pensacola Motor Sales, Inc. v. E. Shore Toyota, LLC, 684

F.3d 1211, 1231 (11th Cir. 2012). The defendants may not now

challenge the district court’s finding, based on their counsel’s own

uncorrected assertion, that if Murdock had properly filled out and

left in the cellblock mailbox a form complaining of not receiving

his initial appearance hearing, it would have been brought to the

attention of Robinson “or at least” Palmer. To the extent the dis-

trict court erred in making that finding, the defendants “invited any

such error and may not be heard to complain of it on appeal.” In

re Carbon Dioxide Indus. Antitrust Litig., 229 F.3d 1321, 1327 (11th

Cir. 2000); see also United States v. Haile, 685 F.3d 1211, 1221 (11th

Cir. 2012) (holding that because defense counsel conceded at trial

the factual issue of whether the gun in question was a machine gun,

he invited the district court’s error in failing to instruct the jury on

the definition of machine gun, which precluded our review of the

issue).

This is an interlocutory appeal from the denial of summary

judgment, and we are ruling on a concession made in a summary

judgment hearing. We do not mean to hold or imply that defense

counsel’s concession about where an inmate form complaining

about not having received an initial appearance hearing would

have been routed is supported by the record, or that it should be

given any effect at trial. That issue is not before us and we express

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21-13616 Opinion of the Court 17

no view about it one way or the other. “[W]hat we state as ‘facts’

in this opinion for purposes of reviewing the rulings on the sum-

mary judgment motion[] may not be the actual facts” decided at

trial. Swint v. City of Wadley, 51 F.3d 988, 992 (11th Cir. 1995); see

Farrow v. West, 320 F.3d 1235, 1239 n.2 (11th Cir. 2003) (same).

Defense counsel also made two concessions at oral argu-

ment before us that are important for purposes of this appeal. First,

she agreed that “[i]f Mr. Murdock had submitted a grievance

form — handed it directly to Ms. Robinson and to Ms. Palmer —

saying” that he had been incarcerated for three weeks and had not

yet had a court hearing, and if Robinson and Palmer “had done

nothing” in response, then Murdock would have “a plausible claim

for a constitutional violation.” Second, she agreed that under those

same facts Robinson and Palmer would properly “be denied quali-

fied immunity.” In other words, for purposes of this appeal counsel

conceded that if Robinson and Palmer had received Murdock’s

form stating that he had been detained for several weeks without a

court hearing and did nothing, their failure to act would have

amounted to deliberate indifference and would be a violation of

clearly established law. When asked by one of the judges if the

appeal turns on “whether the record shows, or allows a reasonable

inference, that Ms. Robinson and/or Ms. Palmer received such

grievance forms from Mr. Murdock,” defense counsel agreed, stat-

ing “I think that’s correct. Yes, sir.” So she conceded that the appeal

turns on a factual issue.

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18 Opinion of the Court 21-13616

“A party can be held to concessions and admissions its coun-

sel made at oral argument.” Nesbitt v. Candler County, 945 F.3d

1355, 1357 (11th Cir. 2020). True, we are not bound to accept a

party’s concession at oral argument on a point of law. See United

States v. Gonzalez, 71 F.4th 881, 884 (11th Cir. 2023); see also United

States v. Colston, 4 F.4th 1179, 1187 (11th Cir. 2021) (“Concessions

of law, on the other hand, are never binding on us. The court de-

cides what the law is — not the parties.”) (citation omitted); Roberts

v. Galen of Va., Inc., 525 U.S. 249, 253 (1999) (“[T]he concession of a

point on appeal by [a party] is by no means dispositive of a legal

issue . . . .”). “But there is a difference between concessions about

the law and those about how the law applies and the result it pro-

duces given the facts of a specific case.” Nesbitt, 945 F.3d at 1357–

58 (accepting a party’s concession that he would lose the appeal if

the but-for causation standard applied). We have discretion to, and

here we do, accept defense counsel’s concessions “about the result

of applying [our deliberate indifference] standard” to a given set of

facts. See id. at 1358. We accept those concessions only for pur-

poses of deciding this appeal, without implying what we would

have decided had those concessions not been made.

So we have Robinson and Palmer’s concession that if Mur-

dock had put into the cellblock mailbox a form complaining of not

receiving an initial appearance within 72 hours, that form would

have been delivered to Robinson or Palmer, giving them notice of

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21-13616 Opinion of the Court 19

6

Murdock’s situation. And we have Robinson and Palmer’s conces-

sion that if they received forms from Murdock alerting them to his

prolonged detention without a hearing, and if they did nothing,

that would constitute deliberate indifference to a clearly estab-

lished constitutional right. That means that at this stage of the pro-

ceedings, the success of Robinson’s and Palmer’s qualified immun-

ity defense turns solely on whether the evidence could support a

finding that Murdock did, in fact, put an inmate request form in the

cellblock mailbox and that the form did, in fact, say that Murdock

had been detained for multiple weeks and had not yet been brought

before a judicial officer.

And that means we lack interlocutory jurisdiction to review

the denial of qualified immunity. When an official moves for sum-

mary judgment based on qualified immunity, a court often under-

takes a two-part analysis. See English v. City of Gainesville, 75 F.4th

1151, 1155 (11th Cir. 2023); Stanley v. City of Dalton, 219 F.3d 1280,

1286–87 (11th Cir. 2000). The court first decides the fact-related

issue of what the official’s conduct was, based on the record viewed

in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. English, 75

F.4th at 1155; Stanley, 219 F.3d at 1286. The court then decides the

legal question of whether a reasonable official could have believed

6

This concession does not stand alone. It comports with reasonable

inferences that a factfinder could draw from Detention Facility Policy No. E-

401 and both Robinson’s and Palmer’s deposition testimony regarding the

ways in which inmate grievances are received and processed.

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20 Opinion of the Court 21-13616

that such conduct was lawful based on clearly established law. Eng-

lish, 75 F.4th at 1155; Stanley, 219 F.3d at 1286–87.

Whether we have interlocutory jurisdiction to review a dis-

trict court’s denial of summary judgment on qualified immunity

grounds “depends on the type of issues involved in the appeal.”

English, 75 F.4th at 1155 (quotation marks omitted). Where an ap-

peal raises an “abstract issue of law relating to qualified immun-

ity — typically, the issue whether the federal right allegedly in-

fringed was clearly established” — we have interlocutory jurisdic-

tion. Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299, 313 (1996) (cleaned up); see

Cottrell v. Caldwell, 85 F.3d 1480, 1484 (11th Cir. 1996); Mitchell v.

Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530 (1985).

But when an appeal of a denial of qualified immunity chal-

lenges the district court’s resolution of only the first, fact-related

issue, we lack jurisdiction to consider it. See Behrens, 516 U.S. at 313

(explaining that a denial of summary judgment is not appealable if

what is at issue “is nothing more than whether the evidence could

support a finding that particular conduct occurred”). Issues of “ev-

identiary sufficiency,” such as “which facts a party may, or may not,

be able to prove a trial,” or “whether the district court erred in de-

termining that there was an issue of fact for trial about the defend-

ant’s actions or inactions which, if they occurred, would violate

clearly established law,” do not, on their own, confer jurisdiction.

Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 313 (1995); Cottrell, 85 F.3d at 1484.

This appeal from the denial of summary judgment does not

raise the core qualified immunity question of whether Robinson’s

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21-13616 Opinion of the Court 21

and Palmer’s alleged conduct violated clearly established constitu-

tional law. Defense counsel told us so by her concessions at oral

argument. Instead, the only issues on appeal are whether there are

genuine issues of material fact about the contents of Murdock’s in-

mate request form and whether he put that form in the cellblock

mailbox. Those questions are not enough to confer interlocutory

jurisdiction. See Johnson, 515 U.S. at 313.

The parties and district court should bear in mind that “[a]ny

qualified immunity defenses that do not result in summary judg-

ment [for the defendants] before trial may be renewed at trial,”

Swint, 51 F.3d at 992, where the jury can find the relevant historical

facts that are determinative of the qualified immunity issue, Sim-

mons v. Bradshaw, 879 F.3d 1157, 1164 (11th Cir. 2018). If Robinson

and Palmer do renew their qualified immunity defense at trial, the

district court can, and when needed should, “use special verdicts or

written interrogatories to the jury to resolve disputed facts before

the judge rules on the qualified-immunity question.” Cottrell, 85

F.3d at 1487 (quotation marks omitted); see Simmons, 879 F.3d at

1164–65.

And at trial the factfinder may accept Murdock’s testimony

about the existence and contents of his inmate request form, but

the factfinder does not have to accept that testimony even if it is

uncontradicted. See, e.g., Burston v. Caldwell, 506 F.2d 24, 26 (5th

Cir. 1975) (“The district court, of course, was not required to accept

[the petitioner’s] testimony, even if uncontradicted.”); see also Slater

v. U.S. Steel Corp., 871 F.3d 1174, 1190–91 (11th Cir. 2017) (Carnes,

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22 Opinion of the Court 21-13616

C.J., concurring) (explaining that “in keeping with the long-estab-

lished law of this circuit,” a trier of fact is not required to “blindly

accept” the testimony of a party, even when that testimony “is

made under oath and not contradicted by other evidence”).

IV. Immunity under Ala. Code § 14-6-1

Robinson and Palmer also contend that they are entitled to

immunity under Ala. Code § 14-6-1 from Murdock’s state law false

imprisonment claim. Section 14-6-1 of the Alabama Code grants

jailers immunity from suit if they are “acting within the line and

scope of their duties and are acting in compliance with the law.”

Ala. Code § 14-6-1 (2011); see Taylor v. Hughes, 920 F.3d 729, 734

(11th Cir. 2019). But the statute does not immunize the defendants

from liability under state law if they violated Murdock’s constitu-

tional rights. Taylor, 920 F.3d at 734. The district court concluded

that Murdock had shown a genuine dispute of material fact as to

whether Robinson and Palmer were deliberately indifferent to his

constitutional rights, so it denied them immunity under Ala. Code

§ 14-6-1.

A denial of immunity under Ala. Code § 14-6-1 for a jailer

constitutes a denial of state sovereign immunity. See Hereford v. Jef-

ferson County, 586 So.2d 209, 210 (Ala. 1991) (explaining that under

Alabama law, sheriffs are entitled to sovereign immunity from suits

for damages based on official acts); Ala. Code § 14-6-1 (explaining

that jailers are entitled to “the same immunities” as sheriffs under

Alabama law). And we have said that denials of state sovereign

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21-13616 Opinion of the Court 23

immunity are “immediately appealable to this Court.” LeFrere v.

Quezada, 582 F.3d 1260, 1263 (11th Cir. 2009).

But the defendants’ entitlement to state law immunity, like

their entitlement to qualified immunity, raises only factual ques-

tions: what was in Murdock’s inmate request form and did he put

it in the cellblock mailbox? And for the same reasons we lack inter-

locutory jurisdiction to review that factual dispute on the federal

law claims, we lack jurisdiction to review it on the state law claims.

See Johnson, 515 U.S. at 313; cf. Oscarson v. Off. of Senate Sergeant at

Arms, 550 F.3d 1, 4 (D.C. Cir. 2008) (concluding that the Johnson

principles “apply with equal force” to a claim of federal sovereign

immunity); Burlington N. & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. Vaughn, 509 F.3d

1085, 1091 (9th Cir. 2007) (applying Johnson to an interlocutory ap-

peal of a denial of tribal sovereign immunity); Van Wyhe v. Reisch,

581 F.3d 639, 648 (8th Cir. 2009) (in an appeal of a denial of Elev-

enth Amendment sovereign immunity, stating that an immediate

appeal of a denial of summary judgment “on the grounds of sover-

eign immunity or qualified immunity . . . is appropriate only to the

extent that it turns on an issue of law”) (quotation marks omitted).

V. Conclusion

The appeal is DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction.