Hazel v. United States, No. 23-01272, 2023 WL 3568895 (D.D.C. May 18, 2023) (Cooper. J.)

Hazel v. United States, No. 23-01272, 2023 WL 3568895 (D.D.C. May 18, 2023) (Cooper. J.)

Re:  Request for videotape concerning plaintiff’s criminal conviction

Disposition:  Dismissing plaintiff’s complaint

Litigation Considerations, Relief:  The court relates that “Plaintiff states that United States ‘employees . . . conspired to deprive’ him of ‘the exculpatory evidence [that] would exonerate [him] of murder,’ thereby depriving him of his rights under the First and Fifth Amendments and causing him ‘to suffer mental [and] emotional distress.’”  The court finds that “[b]ecause a private individual has no legal obligation to release records under the FOIA, . . . or to provide exculpatory evidence during a criminal prosecution, . . . the United States is immunized from count one of the complaint . . . .”