$600 Awarded in MO Detainee's Illegal Segregation Claim by A Missouri Federal District Court, in a bench trial, held officials at the Medium Security Institution of the City of St. Louis violated a pre-trial detainee's due process rights by their custom of not distinguishing between pre-trial detainees and convicted prisoners. …
Supreme Court Holds Guard Liable For Punitive Damages In § 1983 Suit by Supreme Court Holds Guard Liable For Punitive Damages In § 1983 Suit The U.S. Supreme Court held that punitive damages are available in § 1983 actions. A prisoner in a Missouri juvenile prison filed a 42 U.S.C. …
Prisoner's Damages from Civil Suit May Not Be Taken for Recovery of Incarceration by Prisoner's Damages from Civil Suit May Not Be Taken for Recovery of Incarceration Ronald Hankins (plaintiff), a prisoner at the Missouri State Penitentiary (MSP), filed a lawsuit against William Finnel (defendant), a teacher at MSP, for …
Attorney Fee Awards Determined on Case Facts by The United States Supreme Court held that the amount of an attorney award, under 42 U.S.C. § 1988, must be determined on the facts specific for the case, that success on the various issues is a crucial factor, and that such awards …
Eighth Circuit Upholds Judgment Against CMS For Delayed Dental Care by In an unpublished opinion filed on August 7, 2001, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a judgment against Correctional Medical Services (CMS) for failing to provide adequate dental care to a Missouri prisoner. While imprisoned in the …
Prisoner Denied Workers' Compensation for Injury In State Community Job by The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of state prisoner Weldon Richard's workers' compensation claim for a fall he suffered while trimming trees in a community prison job. Richard filed a claim for benefits with the State Labor …
Suit Dismissed as Discovery Sanction by The plaintiff's complaint is dismissed for discovery abuse; he refused to respond to defendants' interrogatories because he believed the defendants had abused discovery in other litigation against him. See: Lindstedt v. City of Granby, 238 F.3d 933 (8th Cir. 2000).
BOP Denial of Bone Marrow Transplant Questioned by The plaintiff complained that the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Missouri refused him an autologous bone marrow transplant. The court affirms the district court's dismissal because during the pendency of the appeal the plaintiff was permitted to take the first steps toward …
Court Rejects Mental Patient's Toilet Deprivation Suit by The plaintiff, an involuntarily committed psychiatric patient, urinated on himself when an aide did not let him go the bathroom immediately. His claim is adjudicated under the Eighth Amendment, even though it is inapplicable to mental patients, because neither party questioned its …
No Media Filming of Missouri Execution Allowed by Two Reverends and the New Life Evangelistic Center challenged the prison system's ban on cameras and tape recorders at executions. The case is not mooted by the completion of the execution the plaintiffs wanted to videotape. The case falls squarely within the …
Court Upholds Denial of Jail Credit to Parole Violator by The plaintiff, who was released on parole and returned to prison on a parole violation and then on new criminal charges arising from the same conduct, had 70 days added to his sentence by prison authorities based on their view …
Censorship of Music Tape Upheld by The plaintiff ordered a music cassette tape which was then denied to her on the ground that it was a security risk. The court affirms the district court's summary judgment for defendants on First Amendment and due process theories without describing the controversy further, …
Trial in Prison Clothes Harmless Error by At 879: "A prisoner may not be compelled to go to trial in prison clothing." But due process is satisfied if there is not actual compulsion; if the defendant doesn't object, he hasn't been compelled, and may also have waived the right to …
Missouri Elective Abortion Ban Ruled Unconstitutional In Class Action by A federal court in Missouri held in a class action lawsuit that a prison policy barring elective abortions was unconstitutional and invalid. The Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) and its medical provider, Correctional Medical Services (CMS), routinely transported women prisoners …
Missouri’s Lethal Injection Protocol Unconstitutional; Executions Stayed by Missouri's Lethal Injection Protocol Unconstitutional; Executions Stayed Finding the current method of Missouri's execution of prisoners by lethal injection subjected condemned prisoners to "an unacceptable risk of suffering unconstitutional pain and suffering," a Missouri federal district court stayed all executions in the …
$4,226 Awarded in Missouri Filthy Cell Suit by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit affirmed a jury verdict of $4,226 in favor of a Missouri prisoner confined in a filthy cell. Plaintiff was confined for two years in the segregation unit of the Missouri State Penitentiary in a …
Warden Liable for $25,000 Damage Award in Mail Censorship Suit by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit affirmed a jury verdict and damage award in favor of a Texas citizen who sued Missouri prison officials for censoring his mail to a Missouri prisoner. Plaintiff was a gay Catholic …
$4,226 Awarded in Filthy Cell Suit by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit affirmed a jury verdict of $4,226 in favor of a Missouri prisoner confined in a filthy cell. Plaintiff was confined for two years in the segregation unit of the Missouri State Penitentiary in a cell …
Trial Required in Jail Beating by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit affirmed in part, reversed and remanded in part a directed verdict in favor of jail officials. A pretrial detainee in the St. Louis Municipal jail in Missouri claimed he was beaten and punched by jail guards …
PI Granted to Allow Visits by PI Granted to Allow visits A federal district court entered a Preliminary Injunction (PI) for a Missouri prisoner and his wife to suspend a disciplinary hearing sanction and keep the prisoner's wife on his visiting list where the guard who reported the underlying infraction …
