Baldwin v. Stalder

• Decision Date: 17 March 1998
• Docket Number: No. 96-30225,96-30225
• Citation: 137 F.3d 836
• Parties: Carnell Kent BALDWIN, Plaintiff-Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. Richard L. STALDER; et al., Defendants, Richard L. Stalder; James W. Herron, Defendants-Appellees/Cross-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 836

137 F.3d 836

Carnell Kent BALDWIN, Plaintiff-Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. Richard L. STALDER; et al., Defendants Richard L. Stalder; James W. Herron Defendants-Appellees/Cross-Appellants.

No. 96-30225.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

March 17, 1998.

Terry Edward Allbritton, Appellate Advocacy Program, Tulane Law School, Jane L. Johnson, Tulane Law Clinic, New Orleans, LA, for Baldwin.

Michael C. Keller, Dept. of Justice, Litigation Div., New Orleans, for Stalder and Herron.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before POLITZ, Chief Judge, and GARWOOD and BARKSDALE, Circuit Judges.

RHESA HAWKINS BARKSDALE, Circuit Judge:

Primarily at issue is whether the district court erred in finding that, through excessive force, prison official James W. Herron violated the Eighth Amendment rights of inmate Carnell Kent Baldwin. We REVERSE that portion of the judgment and RENDER.

I.

Late in 1993, Baldwin, an inmate at Washington Correctional Institute (WCI), filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action, claiming that, as a result of two incidents on two successive days, numerous prison officials, inter alia, through use of excessive force violated his Eighth Amendment rights. Two of the named defendants were Richard L. Stalder, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, and WCI prison official Lieutenant Colonel Herron.

Baldwin's action began with an incident at WCI on 3 August 1993, in which he and approximately 100 other inmates witnessed a confrontation between a guard and an inmate (prison-yard incident). After order was restored, Baldwin continued to protest verbally. While being removed from the area by a guard, Baldwin began to struggle, at which point other guards were called to subdue him. (Baldwin testified that he struggled due to a sore shoulder, not out of resistance; and that, as a result, he suffered serious injuries.)

The next day, 4 August, due to their participation in the prison-yard incident on 3 August and a resulting work stoppage on 4 August, Baldwin and 18 other inmates were transferred by prison bus to a more restrictive facility. All of the inmates were in four point restraints, consisting of shackles around the legs and waist with handcuffs. After the inmates were loaded onto the bus, and while it was parked in an unfenced area of the prison next to the armory, some of the inmates (the number was in dispute at trial) began jumping on the seats, spitting at the officers outside the bus, rocking the bus, and otherwise causing a disturbance.

After those inmates ignored three orders to stop, Colonel Herron, the senior ranking official then on duty, in an effort to restore order, fired a two second burst of pepper mace down the middle of the bus. The inmates were not allowed to wash the mace off and were kept on the bus until they reached their destination approximately three hours later.

The parties consented to proceed before a magistrate judge pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c). Two days after a less than one and one-half day bench trial in early 1996, the magistrate judge made oral findings of fact and conclusions of law upon hearing very brief closing arguments.

The magistrate judge held against Baldwin on his prison-yard incident claim; the vast portion of the trial had pertained to that claim. But, as for the bus incident, the magistrate judge held that Herron had used excessive force. The trial court also held against Baldwin on his other claims. The other defendants, including Secretary Stalder, were dismissed either voluntarily or by the court.

Finding that Baldwin's injury, if any, from being maced was "minor" and his resulting damages de minimis, the magistrate judge did not award monetary damages. Instead, Herron was ordered to attend excessive force training; and Secretary Stalder, who, as noted, had been dismissed from the action, was ordered to place a letter of reprimand in Herron's personnel file and to ensure Herron received the training.

Herron and Stalder moved for a new trial, contending that placing a reprimand letter in Herron's personnel file would violate state law. The magistrate judge amended the judgment, ordering Stalder instead to so place a copy of the amended judgment.

II.

For starters, it is well to remember that the pertinent Eight Amendment proscription is only against "punishments" that are "cruel and unusual". Accordingly, "[w]henever prison officials stand accused of using excessive physical force in violation of the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, the core judicial inquiry is ... whether force was applied in a good-faith effort to maintain or restore discipline, or maliciously and sadistically to cause harm." Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1, 7, 112 S.Ct. 995, 999, 117 L.Ed.2d 156 (1992) (emphasis added). On remand to our court in Hudson, we repeated the type considerations listed by the Supreme Court in Hudson, 503 U.S. at 7, 112 S.Ct. at 999, that come into play for this "core judicial inquiry":

Several factors are relevant in the inquiry whether unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain was used in violation of a prisoner's eighth amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. These include:

1. the extent of the injury suffered;

2. the need for the application of force;

3. the relationship between the need and the amount of force used;

4. the threat reasonably perceived by the responsible officials; and

5. any efforts made to temper the severity of a forceful response.

Hudson v. McMillian, 962 F.2d 522, 523 (5th Cir.1992); see also, Rankin v. Klevenhagen, 5 F.3d 103, 107 (5th Cir.1993); Valencia v. Wiggins, 981 F.2d 1440, 1446-47 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 509 U.S. 905, 113 S.Ct. 2998, 125 L.Ed.2d 691 (1993). Of course, these identified factors are not exclusive; each case must be judged on its own facts. Rankin, 5 F.3d at 107 n. 6.

As noted, the magistrate judge found that "[a]ny injury that was suffered ... was minor." Obviously, the absence of serious injury is quite relevant to an excessive force inquiry, but does not alone preclude relief. Hudson, 503 U.S. at 7, 112 S.Ct. at 999. On the other hand, "the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment excludes from constitutional recognition de minimis uses of physical force, provided that the use of force is not of a sort 'repugnant to the conscience of mankind.' " Siglar v. Hightower, 112 F.3d 191, 193 (5th Cir.1997) (quoting Hudson, 503 U.S. at 7, 112 S. Ct. at 999). In this regard, the Court reminded in Hudson that an Eighth Amendment violation does not occur with "every malevolent touch by a prison guard". Hudson, 503 U.S. at 9, 112 S.Ct. at 1000.

In maintaining that the magistrate judge erred in finding that Herron violated Baldwin's Eighth Amendment rights, Herron and Stalder point to several of the Hudson factors concerning whether "force was applied in a good-faith effort to maintain or restore discipline, or maliciously and sadistically to cause harm." Id. at 7, 112 S.Ct. at 999. They assert that the trial court failed to find that Herron acted with the requisite culpable state of mind (restated, failed to find that he acted maliciously or sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm); that, because the trial court found any injury was minor, and damages de minimis, it should have found that only de minimis force was used and, therefore, no Eighth Amendment violation could occur; and that it failed to defer to Herron's judgment as to the appropriate use of force. (They also contend that the magistrate judge exceeded her authority by ordering Stalder, although dismissed from the action, to implement Herron's excessive force training. And, although Baldwin does not challenge the no-liability holdings for the prison-yard and other non-bus incident claims, he does challenge the denial of monetary damages for the bus incident. Because we reverse and render on the excessive force ruling, we do not reach these issues.)

Of course, we review bench trial findings of fact for clear error; conclusions of law, de novo. E.g., Seal v. Knorpp, 957 F.2d 1230, 1234 (5th Cir.1992). In this regard, we review for clear error a trial court's ruling on excessive use of force. See Valencia, 981 F.2d at 1447 ("district court was not clearly erroneous in finding [ ] use of force grossly disproportionate to the need for action"); Robinson v. Stovall, 646 F.2d 1087, 1090 (5th Cir. Unit A June 1981) (determination by trial judge of no excessive use of force was not clearly erroneous); accord Quezada v. County of Bernalillo, 944 F.2d 710, 715 (10th Cir.1991) ("whether the police used excessive force in a § 1983 case has always been seen as a factual inquiry best answered by the fact finder"). In this regard, as is quite well-known, for a finding to be clearly erroneous, we must have a firm conviction, based on a review of the entire record, that a mistake has been made. See, e.g., Justiss Oil Co., Inc. v. Kerr-McGee Refining Corp., 75 F.3d 1057, 1067 (5th Cir.1996).

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