In Burns v. Reed, 500 U.S. 478 (1991), the Court held that a state prosecuting attorney is absolutely immune from liability for damages under 42 U.S.C. 1983 for the attorney's participation in a probable cause hearing. The prosecuting attorney in that case was accused of deliberately misleading the court while examining a witness. In ruling that the prosecution was immune from liability under 1983, the Court reasoned that "prosecutors and other lawyers were absolutely immune from damages liability at common law for making false or defamatory statements in judicial proceedings." Id. at 490-91. Thus, the Court in Burns applied absolute immunity not just to common law defamation actions but also to claims arising under a statute, and further characterized common law absolute immunity as extending to false, as well as defamatory, statements.