Eighth Circuit Affirms Damages Award, Discovery Sanctions, Fees in Missouri Pepper Spray Case by The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict, damages awards, and discovery sanctions against Missouri Department of Corrections officials at the Potosi Correctional Center (PCC) in a case involving excessive force against PCC …
Expert Testimony Required to Prove Causation by The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a Missouri prisoner who suffered a stroke after being deprived of medication for hypertension for a month could not recover absent expert medical testimony on causation. Willie Robinson, a sixty-four year old man with a …
Democratic Organization Gives Some Felons Second Chance by America Coming Together (ACT)--a democratic group working to ensure that George W. Bush is not reelected--is employing felons to conduct door-to-door voter registration drives in Missouri, Florida, Ohio, and possibly 14 other states crucial to the November 2004 elections. ACT contends that …
Conclusory Allegations held Not "Some Evidence" in Prisoner Retaliation Claim by Conclusory Allegations Held Not "Some Evidence" in Prisoner Retaliation Claim The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that conclusory statements referencing investigative reports not in the record cannot be used by prison officials as "some evidence" to show …
$1 Damages and $1.50 Attorney Fees in Guard Brutality Suit by John E Dannenberg by John E. Dannenberg The Eighth Circuit US Court of Appeals affirmed the award of $1 nominal damages for guard brutality in violation of the Eighth Amendment and limited the prevailing prisoner plaintiff's attorney fees to …
Supreme Court: No Punitive Damages Allowed Under RA and ADA by In a unanimous opinion, the United States supreme court held that punitive damages are not allowed under the Rehabilitation Act, (RA), 29 U.S.C. § 794 (a) or the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12132. Jeffrey Gorman …
ADA/RA Suit for Sign Language Interpreters Proceeds for Prospective Injunctive Relief by John E Dannenberg ADA/RA Suit For Sign Language Interpreters Proceeds for Prospective Injunctive Relief by John E. Dannenberg The Eighth Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled that a deaf-mute Missouri State prisoner's ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and …
Missouri and Benetton Settle Lawsuit Over Death Row Advertisements by On June 15, 2001, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon announced that Italian clothes making company Benetton had agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the state of Missouri by paying $50,000 to a victims compensation fund. In February 2000, Nixon …
New Missouri Mega-Prison Mothballed by Ronald Young What if they built a prison and nobody came? It's every prison abolitionist's dream come true. Such a reality has unfolded, even if only temporarily, in the rural Missouri community of Bonne Terre. The economic history of Bonne Terre is a familiar one, …
America's Jails: The Dungeons of the New Millenium by Sam Rutherford At any given time there are approximately 500,000 people incarcerated in the more than 3,500 city and county jails across the United States. Some of these individuals are confined while awaiting trial, others are serving relatively short sentences for …
Municipal Liability Under 42 U.S.C. 1983 and the Ratification The Journal of Legislation Volume 27 | Issue 2 Article 5 5-1-2001 Municipal Liability under 42 U.S.C. 1983 and the Ratification Theory of City of St. Louis v. Praprotnik: An Analysis of Federal Circuit Treatment;Note Jack C. Hanssen Follow this and …
BOP Organ Transplant Ban Questioned by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit dismissed, without prejudice, a habeas corpus petition filed by Kenneth Barron, a federal prisoner, claiming his longterm survival was at risk because the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) refuses to provide him with a kidney transplant. Instead, …
Summary Judgment Reversed on Diabetes Claim by The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed a lower court's grant of a summary judgment in favor of a doctor and a deputy sheriff on a pre-trial detainee's §1983 claim that they were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs. Floyd …
MO Prisoner Awarded $130,000 in Retaliation and Haircut Claims by On February 4, 2000 a federal jury in the Eastern District of Missouri awarded $130,000 in damages to Jerry McCrary. McCrary, who is black, filed suit claiming that while imprisoned at the Potosi Correctional Center in Missouri on August 16, …
MO Consent Decree Modification Affirmed by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit held that a district court correctly granted prison officials' motion to modify a consent decree to allow for prison overcrowding. The ruling is novel in this post Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) era when prison officials …
The Restraint Chair: Safe and Humane? by Anne-Marie Cusac Jail and prison employees call it the "strap-o-lounger," the "barcalounger," the "we care chair," and the "be sweet chair." Prisoners and their lawyers have other names for the device: "torture chair," "slave chair," and "devil's chair." They are not referring to …
Two Guards Killed During Botched Missouri Jail Escape by On June 22, 2000, a man and a woman rang the night bell of small county jail in Huntsville, Missouri, and when they were let in gunned down two guards in a botched attempt to spring a friend who was detained …
DOJ Investigates CMS Health Care at Missouri Prison by Michael Rigby DOJ Investigates CMS Health Care At Missouri Prison by Michael Rigby Allegations of improper medical treat-ment, lack of medical treatment, and several suspicious deaths at the Women's Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center, a state women's prison in Vandalia, …
Retaliation, Publication Ban and Lack of Dental Care States Claim by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit held that a prisoner's complaint that he was retaliated against for using the prison grievance system, denied access to all publications and denied dental care, stated a claim. Missouri prisoner Percy …
