No Qualified Immunity for Prison Officials Who Upheld Grievance by In a scathing opinion written in the first person, Elaine Bucklo, a federal judge in Illinois, handed down a potentially far-reaching ruling which favored a prisoner complaining of inadequate medical care, denied qualified immunity to prison medical workers, and found …
Pro Se Appellants Must Cite Authority by The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that pro se prisoner litigants must cite supporting authority when they appeal adverse judgments. The ruling is especially important for pro se litigants in states that have inadequate, or nonexistent, prison law libraries. Illinois …
No Qualified Immunity for Shackling Prisoner to Hospital Bed by Gregory May, a Cook County, Illinois, prisoner, filed a suit against the Sheriff and Sheriff's Department officials under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging their treatment of prisoners taken to Cook County Hospital is unconstitutional and violates the Americans with Disabilities …
ADA Claims Against State Cannot Proceed in Federal Court by John E Dannenberg ADA Claims Against State Cannot Proceed In Federal Court In a suit against an Illinois prison brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a prisoner with impaired vision was denied monetary, declaratory, and injunctive relief in …
Damages in Denial of Exercise Suit Reversed by The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in a harshly worded opinion, reversed an Illinois federal district court judgment that a one-year loss of yard privileges suffered by a prisoner in disciplinary segregation was cruel and unusual punishment. Alex Pearson is a prisoner …
Sanction Excessive When It Excludes Medical Expert's Testimony by The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has held that a discovery sanction is excessive when it causes the dismissal of a prisoner's suit by excluding expert medical testimony. The Court also held that dismissing a claim for failure to …
Six Month Denial of Exercise Presents Section 1983 Claim by An Illinois federal district court ruled that a prisoner's claim that he was denied out-of-cell exercise during a six month prison lockdown "present[ed] a cognizable claim despite the penological justification proffered by the defendants." The Court also ruled that Defendants …
Possibility of Life in Control Unit Doesn't Mitigate Death by Possibility of Life In Control Unit Doesn't Mitigate Death The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has held that the possibility of life imprisonment in a control unit is not a mitigating factor in a federal death penalty case. …
Retaliation Complaint Not Frivolous if Not Irrational or Wholly Incredible by The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the District Court's dismissal of Illinois prisoner Terry Johnson's 42 USC §1983 complaint wherein he complained nurse Debbie Stovall filed false disciplinary charges against him in retaliation for his having filed a …
Retaliatory Infraction Creates Heck Exception by The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held a prisoner may bring a 42 U.S.C. §1983 action upon a claim of retaliatory disciplinary action even when the underlying disciplinary action has not been overturned. Illinois prisoner Anthony Dewalt sued various officials at Dixon …
$9.6 Million Awarded for Child Death in Illinois Jail by On October 19, 2000 a Cook County jury in Chicago, Illinois awarded $9.6 million to the estate of Joyce Hughes, who died from injuries she sustained after she was born in a cell in the Cook County Jail near Chicago …
No Qualified Immunity for Illinois Visitor Strip Searches by The court of appeals for the Seventh circuit held that Illinois prison officials were not entitled to qualified immunity from money damages for strip-searching prison visitors in the absence of any individualized suspicion that they were carrying contraband. Between 1995 and …
$57,000 Awarded in Illinois Prison Beating by Lonnie Burton In 1999 an Illinois state prisoner was awarded nearly $57,000 in damages and fees following trial on his charges that fellow prisoners beat him while a guard stood and watched. Ronnie W. Carroll filed suit in the United States District Court …
Cook County Deputies Charged in Beating Death by Three Cook County (Chicago, IL.) deputies were charged with murder for allegedly beating a prisoner in a courthouse holding cell May 5, 2000. The prisoner died two days later from injuries sustained in the beating. Louis Schmude, 40, was awaiting a court …
IL Prison Phone Ruling Published by In the June 2000, issue of PLN we reported that a federal district court in Illinois had dismissed a class action lawsuit challenging the phone rates charged to consumers who accept phone calls from prisoners in Illinois prisons and jails. The court's ruling is …
Seventh Circuit Rejects ETS Claim by The U.S. court of appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that a pretrial detainee's injuries from exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) were not sufficiently serious to support a due process claim, and that he could not recover for future injuries absent some showing …
Eleventh Amendment Immunity for Illinois Sheriff Denied by Denial of a county Sheriff's motion for dismissal of an arrestee's civil rights suit was affirmed when the Seventh Circuit upheld a district court's ruling that an Illinois Sheriff is a county officer and Eleventh Amendment immunity did not apply. Mario DeGenova …
Construction Contractor Not Liable Under §1983 for Disabling Fire Safety Equipment by Construction Contractor Not Liable Under §1983 for Disabling Fire Safety Equipment A federal district court in Illinois has dismissed a private construction contractor from a suit alleging a prisoner was injured in a fire after the contractor's employees …
Illinois Supermax Hunger Strike by Dan Pens By Dan Pens Displaying remarkable solidarity while encaged under unimaginably oppressive conditions, more than half of the 273 prisoners at the Tamms Supermax prison in downstate Illinois began a hunger strike by refusing their breakfast on May 1,2000. Prison officials said 173 prisoners …
Medical Claims Against CMS to be Refiled in State Court by By Matthew T. Clarke A federal district court in Illinois has dismissed the breach of medical care duty suit of a suicide prisoner's estate against Correctional Medical Services of Illinois (CMS), but encouraged the refilling of the suit in …
