Executing Prisoner Who Regained Competency Does Not Violate His Rights by The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that a state does not violate the Eighth or Fourteenth Amendments by executing a prisoner who regains competency through forced medication. Charles Singleton was convicted of capital murder and aggravated robbery in …
Housing Death Row Prisoner in Segregation Cell Constitutional by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that prison officials did not violate a prisoner's rights by housing him in a segregation cell rather than a death row cell. In response to being confined in a segregation cell …
Equitable Tolling Applies to AEDPA by The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that equitable tolling applies to the one-year statute of limitations for filing federal habeas corpus petitions under the Anti Terrorism Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), 28 U.S.C. 2244 (2) (1). The petitioner, an Arkansas prisoner, filed a …
Sex Offenders Can Be Excluded From Work Release Program by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that an Arkansas prisoner's Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process and equal protection were not violated by state officials' refusal to allow him to participate in a work/study program for …
Passing Through Metal Detector Partly Disrobed Not "Strip Search" by Passing Through Metal Detector Partly Disrobed Not "Strip Search" The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, affirming the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, held that a state prison guard's requirement that an eight-year-old female visitor pass …
Summary Judgment on Religious Exercise Affirmed in Part and Reversed in Part by The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part a grant of summary judgment to Arkansas prison officials in a case involving free exercise of religion. Terry Procter is …
Arkansas Jailers Not Responsible for Prisoner's Beating by Scott Crow, a state prisoner in Arkansas' Faulkner County Detention Center (jail), had his jaw broken by a prisoner in his cell during a fight. He sued several jail administrators under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in federal district court. Although the defendants …
BOP Must Disclose Part of Investigation Manual by The federal prison at Forrest City, Arkansas (prison) suspended for one day an employee represented by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). The AFGE requested that the prison produce a copy of its Special Investigative Supervisor Manual (manual), which the prison …
Failure to Exhaust Differs from Failure to State Claim under PLRA by The court rejects the proposition that failure to exhaust administrative remedies is a strike under the PLRA. At 965-66 (footnotes omitted): . . . [T]he PLRA does not use "failure to state a claim" and "failure to exhaust …
Religious Immunization Exemption Statute in Arkansas Voided by A religious exemption from a school immunization statute, which was limited to persons belonging to a "recognized church or religious denomination," application for which was evaluated based on factors including the address of the church, the number of members, times and places …
Sheriff Not Liable for Hiring Brutal Jail Guards by The plaintiff alleged that he was subjected to excessive force, including a "knee drop" that severed his intestine. He alleged that the Sheriff was deliberately indifferent in hiring the deputy responsible. The deputy had nothing worse on his criminal record than …
Arkansas Medicaid Injunction Upheld by The district court enjoined proposed budget cutbacks on the ground that they would violate federal Medicaid law. The relevant statute, which has long been held to create a property interest, requires payment methods that assure that payments "are consistent with efficiency, economy, and quality of …
Prison Officials Failure to Respond to Grievance Must be Raised in Lower Court by At 1085: "Prison officials' failure to timely respond to a grievance could be a basis for a prisoner to show that he exhausted 'available' administrative remedies." At 1086: "Significantly, however, we find no evidence in the …
Beating Noisy Arkansas Prisoner Unjustified by The plaintiff's allegation that he was sitting on a bench in a cell and two guards entered and beat him was sufficient to withstand summary judgment. The fact that he had been yelling and kicking the walls previously did not provide a basis for …
Prison Officials Denied Qualified Immunity in Strip Search of Visitor by The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court's grant of summary judgment on grounds of qualified immunity a strip search of a prison visitor by Arkansas prison officials. Burlis Smothers, the mother of a prisoner at …
$7,500 for Failing to Protect Snitch by The court of appeals for the Seventh circuit affirmed a district court awarding an informant $7,500 in damages after he was assaulted by other prisoners. The prison failed to screen snitch's files. His files were not checked before being placed in Protective Custody, …
Guard Liable for Snitchjacketing by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit held that Arkansas prison officials were liable for guard provoked attacks on a prisoner. A prisoner filed suit after he was assaulted on three occasions by other prisoners after a guard labeled him a snitch. The prisoner …
Eighth Circuit Again Reverses District Court; Remands for Jury Trial by The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has, for the second time, reversed the Arkansas Eastern District Court's dismissal of an Arkansas state prisoner's claim that Arkansas Department of Corrections (DOC) guards maliciously and sadistically used excessive force to remove …
Jury Instruction And Exclusion Of Jail Standards Upheld In Failure To Protect Suit by Jury Instruction And Exclusion Of Jail Standards Upheld In Failure To Protect Suit The US Court Of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that a US District Court did not err in excluding jail standards and …
Seizure Of Federal Benefits By State Unconstitutional by The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that no part of a prisoner's Social Security benefits or Veterans Administration benefits could be confiscated by the state as reimbursement for incarceration costs. After the Arkansas legislature passed the State Prison Inmate Care and Custody Reimbursement …
