Act fast with those wrongful arrest suits

CHICAGO, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court said former murder convict Andre Wallace waited too long to sue Chicago for wrongful arrest.

The court said that Wallace should have filed his lawsuit within two years of his 1994 arrest. Wallace didn't sue the city until 2003, after he'd won an appeal and been freed from prison, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Lawyer Kurt Feuer represents former death row inmate Madison Hobley, who is also suing the city for false arrest. He was arrested for murder in 1987 but didn't sue until 2003 when he was freed by a pardon, the Sun-Times reported.

Feuer told the Sun-Times the high court ruling was "not very practical."

Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented with the majority decision, writing that "large numbers of defendants will be sued immediately by all potential (false arrest) plaintiffs . . . no matter how meritless the claims," the Sun-Times said.