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Judge Rules Death-Scene Photos Don’t Violate Privacy Rights

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that a New Mexico State Police officer did not violate any constitutional right to privacy when he used his personal cellphone to take and text to friends pictures of a Santa Fe-area man who had been killed by police. The Albuquerque Journal reports (http://bit.ly/2bx01bw ) that 34-year-old Samuel Pauly, who lived in Glorieta, was shot and killed by police in 2011 before an officer snapped photos of the death scene. Earlier this month U.S. District Court Judge Judith C. Herrera found that Pauly's family failed to show that Pauly had the right to privacy under the Fourteenth Amendment after his death. The family's attorney says the ruling effectively says dead people do not have privacy rights. He says he will likely appeal the ruling.