The court unanimously ruled that prison officials were liable for Eighth Amendment violations only if they acted with "deliberate indifference" to a prisoner's suffering.
"And when this is true of prison officials, no constitutional liability may lie, however 'soul-chilling' the conditions."
As long as prison officials assert that they didn't know about the risk, he said, a federal court will rarely find an Eighth Amendment violation.
Prison officials weren't aware of the altercation, according to an incident report, until Hodges' then-fiancée called the prison, concerned about his safety.
She disagreed with how her colleagues assessed the question of mindset, writing that a committee finding alone should not release prison officials from liability.
Persons:
Dario Bonga, James Vandevender's, Bonga, Mark Latimer, Latimer, Latimer saunters, Vandevender's, Vandevender, —, Peggy Vandevender, he'd, Joseph Gomm, Gomm's, Jim, Shelby Tauber, Aaron Swanum, Tim Gravette, Latimer couldn't, Paul Schnell, Schnell, It's, Farmer, Brennan, David Souter, Souter, Sharon Dolovich, Alyssa Schukar, Lawrence Piersol, Jason Dunkelberger, Dunkelberger, Piersol, couldn't, didn't, Donovan Frank, Frank, Mark Bradford, I'm, Judge Jane Kelly, David Fathi, Katie Hobbs, Ryan Thornell, David Shapiro, J.W, Gamble, hadn't, Thurgood Marshall, Marshall, John Boston, Ronald Reagan ramped, Dee Farmer, Farmer's, Elizabeth Alexander, Drew Days III, Michelle Alexander, Harry Blackmun, Blackmun, Alexander, James Loken, Trina Murray, David Hodges, Patience Zalanga, Hodges, Murray, Courtney Osgood, Osgood, fiancée, Gene Olson, Jeffrey Titus, Rush, Olson, Osgood didn't, Ashlee Berts, Berts, Wilhelmina Wright, Wright, Marc Bakambia, Craig Shipp, Mitchell Marbury, Robin Rosenbaum, Kelly, Fathi, James Vandevender, khakis, Mike, He's, Ashley Christen, Peggy, he's, Latimer bludgeoned, dreads
Organizations:
Rush, longtime Rush City, BI, Minncor Industries, Rush City, Business, Minnesota Department of Corrections, UCLA, South, Penitentiary, South Dakota Department of Corrections, District of, pitchfork, Supreme, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, ACLU, Chicago Lawyers, Committee, Civil Rights, Civil Rights Movement, ', New York, Legal Aid Society, Prisons, Minnesota Correctional, Medical, Circuit, Mississippi Department of Corrections
Locations:
Minnesota, Rush City, Vandevender, Rush, Chisago County, Euless , Texas, Minncor, Farmer, South Dakota, District of Minnesota, Vandevender's, New York, Arizona, Michigan, York, Alabama, Texas, knifepoint, Lino, Minneapolis, Africa, Osgood, Moose, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah, Dallas