TN Prisoner's Photos Destroyed; § 1983 Relief May Lie by TN Prisoner's Photos Destroyed; § 1983 Relief May Lie In 1998, Billy Lattimer, a Tennessee state prisoner, sued the state Department of Correction (TDOC) and several prison guards in the Chancery Court for Davidson County after the guards allegedly destroyed …
City Liable for Tolerating Police Brutality by At 879: The Plaintiff avers that the City violated his constitutional rights by failing to train, discipline, monitor and evaluate officers in the use of force; refusing to adequately investigate citizen complaints of excessive force; exonerating officers accused of improper use of force; …
Firing Whistleblowing Cop Unconstitutional by The plaintiff police officer filled out a required use of force report and implicated an officer in a beating (the suspect was not bleeding when the plaintiff left and was bleeding when he returned.) The plaintiff police sergeant expressed concerns to a lieutenant about the …
Class-wide Injunctions Rarely Appropriate in Individual Suits by At 273: "While district courts are not categorically prohibited from granting injunctive relief benefitting an entire class in an individual suit, such broad relief is rarely justified because injunctive relief should be no more burdensome to the defendant than necessary to provide …
$210,000 Awarded in Tennessee Jail Heat Stroke Death by A federal district court in Tennessee awarded $100,000 in compensatory and 110,000 in punitive damages to the children of a prisoner who died of heat stroke in the Chattanooga jail in Tennessee. Court held that jail's failure to take remedial action …
Prisoners in Protective Custody Entitled to Law Library Access by A federal district court in Tennessee held that prisoners in protective custody were entitled to law library access to ensure their right of access to the courts. This ruling does not survive Lewis v. Casey, 518 US 343 (1996) unless …
Use of Deadly Force Subject To Fourth Amendment Reasonableness Standard by The U.S. Supreme Court held that the use of deadly force in apprehending a fleeing suspect was a seizure under the Fourth Amendment and that a Tennessee law allowing police officers to use deadly force against a fleeing suspect …
TN Prisoner Libel Proof by The Tennessee Court of Appeals held that a prisoner's conviction resulting in incarceration for 99 years renders any reputation he may have virtually valueless," and that he was, in the eyes of the law, libel proof." This action was filed by a prisoner convicted of …
IAD Not Violated; "Law of the Case" Controls by IAD Not Violated; "Law of the Case" Controls The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a prisoner's incarceration in a county jail on parole violations while also awaiting trial on federal charges was not a "term of imprisonment" under …
Prison Stabbing Violates Eight Amendment by The Sixth Circuit has held that a prisoner's Eighth Amendment rights were violated when he was stabbed to death while prison guards watched and did not render assistance. Prisoner Jerry Fails was working as a janitor at the Tennessee State Penitentiary when he was …
Nurse Denied, Sheriff Granted, Qualified Immunity on Prisoner's Stroke by The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, partly reversing the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, held that a jail nurse was not entitled to qualified immunity but that the sheriff and jailer were so entitled, in …
PLRA Exhaustion-of-Remedies Requirement Applies to Private Prison by by Matthew T. Clarke On September 8, 2004 the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that prisoners incarcerated in a private prison must first exhaust the prison's administrative remedies before bringing suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 challenging unconstitutional prison conditions. Louis …
Certified Court Records Not Hearsay by Brian Benefiel was released from the Washington State prison system after serving a sentence for attempted second degree assault. He didn't report to his supervising community corrections officer, for which he was arrested and charged with escape from community custody. A certified copy of …
Jail Liable for Distress Caused by Hostage Training by The defendants created a training exercise intended to prepare jailers for a hostage situation, and did entirely too good a job of it, according to the plaintiff jailers. They enlisted two probationary jailers to play inmates. They were allowed into the …
Administrative Exhaustion Required in Jail Assault Case by The plaintiff sued over an assault by other prisoners. The court dismisses for failure to exhaust, notwithstanding his arguments that he did not receive a copy of the jail handbook and did not know about the grievance procedure; that he told staff …
Report Not Admissible in TN Jail Suicide Suit by The decedent hanged himself in jail. The Sheriff said to the press that a sergeant saw him put the sheet around his neck, and the court earlier said that "this evidence, if proven" could support a deliberate indifference claim. However, the …
PLRA Doesn't Apply to Immigration Habeas Petition by A Cuban Petitioner in INS custody challenged his seemingly indefinite detention. At 810 (footnote omitted): Under the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA), 28 U.S.C. § 1915, it is unclear how habeas petitioners establish a right to proceed in forma pauperis …
TN Jailers Held Liable in Slip-And-Fall Case by The Tennessee Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court's dismissal of a prisoner's negligence action against Loudon County, Tennessee and its sheriff, Tim Guider. James K. Cannon was a prisoner in the Louder County Jail on August 23, 2002 when he …
Parole Revocation Hearing Required by 18 U.S.C. § 4214(c) by Parole Revocation Hearing Required by 18 U.S.C. § 4214(c) The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the United States Parole Commission erred in failing to hold a parole revocation hearing as required by 18 U.S.C. §4214(c), after a parolee …
Fed Prisoner's Standard Range Sentence for Escape Affirmed by In April, 2004, Lonnie Davis, a federal prisoner, was sent to a work release center after serving eleven years of a twelve-and-a-half year sentence for bank robbery. In May he escaped. He was later arrested and charged with escape. Davis was …
