Curry v. Crist

• Decision Date: 16 June 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-4184,SPITZACK-HAVLIS,CO-TRUSTEES,AND,INDIVIDUALL,99-4184
• Parties: (8th Cir. 2000) HAROLD LOWELL CURRY; PATRICIA LYNNASFOR THE HEIRS OF EDWIN HUGH CURRY, PLAINTIFFS - APPELLANTS, v. DAVID CRIST, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS WARDEN OF THE STILLWATER CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, DEFENDANT - APPELLEE. Submitted:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 974

226 F.3d 974 (8th Cir. 2000)

HAROLD LOWELL CURRY; PATRICIA LYNN SPITZACK-HAVLISH, INDIVIDUALLY, AND AS CO-TRUSTEES FOR THE HEIRS OF EDWIN HUGH CURRY, PLAINTIFFS - APPELLANTS, v. DAVID CRIST, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS WARDEN OF THE STILLWATER CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, DEFENDANT - APPELLEE.

No. 99-4184

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

Submitted: June 16, 2000

Filed: September 28, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.

Before Loken, Ross, and Hansen, Circuit Judges.

Loken, Circuit Judge.

On November 27, 1997, Minnesota inmate Edwin Curry was brutally murdered at the Stillwater Correctional Facility by fellow inmate Craig Bjork. Curry's heirs filed this § 1983 action against Warden David Crist and other prison officials, alleging that they violated Curry's Eighth Amendment rights by failing to protect him from the fatal assault. Curry's heirs appeal the district court's¹ decision to grant Crist summary judgment based on qualified immunity. We affirm.

I. Background.

In 1982, Bjork murdered his two sons, his girlfriend, and a prostitute. He was sentenced by a Minnesota court to three consecutive life sentences for first degree murder and a consecutive 242-month sentence for second degree murder. During the 1980s, Bjork was a difficult inmate, and other inmates harassed him for being a child killer. The Minnesota Department of Corrections eventually transferred him to the Montana prison system, from which he tried to escape. He was returned to Minnesota in 1989 and spent five years at the maximum security facility in Oak Park Heights. Bjork received above average work evaluations and no disciplinary reports in 1991, 1992, and 1993 and was transferred in 1994 to Stillwater, a "close custody" facility. He received three or four disciplinary reports and segregation sentences in 1994 and 1995 for disorderly conduct, disobeying orders, and substance abuse.

In May 1996, Bjork was sentenced to seventy-five days in segregation for threatening to throw hot water on two correction officers. On July 14, 1996, while in segregation, Bjork sent a kite (memorandum) to Warden Crist stating that "Stillwater is not a healthy environment for me." Bjork described himself as "homicidal" and depressed, and concluded:

I'm very close to committing mass murder in Stillwater. Trust me minimum of 3 bodies, I'd go for 10 & come real close. So how do we handle this? (I'm for real) I'd like to work it out. But you can blow me off.

Crist immediately referred the threatening kite for investigation. Case Manager Debra Nelson interviewed Bjork. She reported he appeared capable of following through on his threat and requested a psychological evaluation. On July 30, Nelson issued a formal Notice of Violation for Threatening Others, which prevented Bjork's release from segregation. A staff psychologist interviewed Bjork on August 1. Bjork denied threatening anyone, said "he was merely trying to get people to take him seriously," but also "indicated that some officers might get hurt because of their attitude." A few days later, Bjork wrote Crist a lengthy kite explaining that his July 14 kite was "an emotional release & cry for help," not a threat; complaining that further segregation was unnecessary and he had not been properly charged; and concluding, "I really want to stay at [Stillwater] . . . so let me show you how I want to do my time quiet & easy." Warden Crist responded in writing that the Threatening Others charge was deserved but would be withdrawn because of undue delay in bringing it. Bjork was then released to the general prison population. In January 1997, Bjork was assigned to work in the prison kitchen with Curry. He was also transferred to Cell Hall D, a "service unit" where inmates receive additional privileges and amenities.

In October 1997, at his request, Bjork was transferred to a new tier in Cell Hall D. Soon after, he asked to move again, complaining that other inmates controlled use of the telephone on his new tier. On November 12, Bjork sent a letter to Crist complaining of the telephone situation. The complaint was investigated, and two inmates who were improperly controlling use of the phone were transferred to another tier. However, Bjork's request for a transfer was denied because of concern he was manipulating the situation to effect an unwarranted second transfer. When Crist spoke to Bjork briefly on November 21, Crist did not perceive that Bjork was distressed or noticeably angry with prison staff or other inmates. Unit Director Tim Lanz spoke to Bjork about the telephone situation on November 26 and did not perceive that he was distressed or agitated or felt he was being treated unfairly. Lanz was "extremely shocked" when Bjork murdered Curry the next day with a stolen plumber's pipe.

Bjork consented to an investigative interview the day after the attack. He admitted killing Curry in their basement work area during a one-half hour period between guard patrols. Bjork said he had no reason to kill Curry other than the fact that Curry was the nearest available victim. Bjork said he had planned to leave the kitchen area and kill other inmates and staff that day, but he was discovered hosing down the murder area by a patrolling guard. Bjork fled but was quickly captured.

II. Discussion.

Qualified immunity protects government officials performing discretionary functions from liability for damages so long as "their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818 (1982). Prison inmates have a clearly established Eighth Amendment right to be protected from violence by other inmates. See Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 833 (1994). A prison official violates this right when "he is deliberately indifferent to the need to protect an inmate from a substantial risk of serious harm from other inmates." Newman v. Holmes, 122 F.3d 650, 652 (8th Cir. 1997). A failure-to-protect claim has an objective component, whether there was a substantial risk of harm to the inmate, and a subjective component, whether the prison official was deliberately indifferent to that risk. See Jackson v. Everett, 140 F.3d 1149, 1151 (8th Cir. 1998).

Although the failure-to-protect cause of action has a subjective component, the critical inquiry for qualified immunity purposes is whether it was "objectively legally reasonable" for the prison official to believe that his conduct did not violate the inmate's clearly established Eighth Amendment right. Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 641 (1987). Consistent with that standard, the Supreme Court observed in Farmer v. Brennan that "prison officials who actually knew of a substantial risk to inmate health or safety may be found free from liability if they responded reasonably to the risk, even if the harm ultimately was not averted." 511 U.S. at 844. Qualified immunity protects "all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law." Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341 (1986).

In this case, the district court granted Crist qualified immunity on two grounds: "the record does not support an inference that Curry was under a substantial risk of harm at the time he was attacked," and "the record does not raise a factual question...