U.S. appeals court: Woodward shooting case deserves further review by Vermont judge

Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian

posted August 24, 2005

BRATTLEBORO — Nearly four years after he was shot dead by police in a Brattleboro church, Robert Woodward’s family members were handed their first legal victory Tuesday, when a New York appeals court sent their wrongful death case back to a Vermont District Court for further review.

District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha may have been improvident in dismissing the testimony of four witnesses to the shooting, who swore that Woodward made no threatening moves toward police before he was shot, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled on Tuesday.

“The district court discounted these witnesses’ accounts for unconvincing reasons,” the judges concluded.

Woodward’s mother and sister asked the appeals court judges on Aug. 4 to overrule Murtha’s 2004 decision dismissing their civil lawsuit. Murtha ruled that it was reasonable for police to believe their lives or the lives of others were in danger, and refused to review discrepancies in testimony.

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