Newman v. Holmes, 96-3840

• Decision Date: 03 September 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-3840,96-3840
• Parties: Lonell NEWMAN; Hoseia Chestnut, Plaintiffs--Appellees, v. Levi HOLMES, Defendant--Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 650

122 F.3d 650

Lonell NEWMAN; Hoseia Chestnut, Plaintiffs--Appellees, v. Levi HOLMES, Defendant--Appellant.

No. 96-3840.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted May 22, 1997.

Decided Sept. 3, 1997.

David Eberhard, Little Rock, AR, argued (Winston Bryant, Attorney General, on the brief), for Defendant-Appellant.

Bruce Eddy, North Little Rock, AR, for Plaintiffs-Appellees.

Before BEAM, Circuit Judge, HENLEY, Senior Circuit Judge, and LOKEN, Circuit Judge.

LOKEN, Circuit Judge.

In this § 1983 action, Arkansas inmates Lonell Newman and Hoseia Chestnut sued Correctional Officer Levi Holmes for violating their Eighth Amendment rights by failing to protect them from an attack by another inmate. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiffs and awarded Newman and Chestnut damages of $500 each. Holmes appeals the denial of his motion for judgment as a matter of law. We affirm.

I.

On May 7, 1994, inmate Johnson was housed in Barracks 4 at the Tucker Maximum Security Unit prison. Johnson was on disciplinary court review status ("DCR"), charged with violating prison rules. DCR is a type of isolated confinement. The inmate is fed in his cell and is not allowed out of the cell unless handcuffed and escorted by a prison official. One reason for isolating DCR inmates in this manner is to protect other inmates and guards from a presumptively dangerous prisoner until his disciplinary hearing is completed. The record does not reflect the disciplinary issue that caused Johnson to be on DCR status.

On May 7, Newman and Chestnut were in the general prison population but were also housed in Barracks 4. At about 4:15 P.M., Newman and Chestnut were watching TV in the cell block day room when Johnson attacked first Newman and then Chestnut, cutting both with a homemade knife. They escaped the day room and alerted prison officials, who subdued Johnson after a struggle. The attack was unanticipated. Newman had never had any other problem with Johnson. Chestnut testified that he and Johnson had exchanged heated words playing basketball the previous day, but "it wasn't nothing but talk."

Officer Holmes was assigned to the Barracks 4 control booth on May 7 and was responsible for opening and closing the doors in Johnson's cell block. At trial, Holmes testified that he knew of Johnson's DCR status, which was shown on the cell block roster. He also knew that DCR inmates may not leave their cells unescorted because they are presumptively dangerous to others. When he began his shift that morning, he placed a prominent DCR tag on the switch controlling Johnson's cell door, the standard reminder to the control booth operator not to open a DCR inmate's cell door. Holmes flatly denied opening Johnson's cell door but admitted that his supervisor, Lieutenant Curtis Hampton, had accused Holmes of being responsible for Johnson's escape.

The cell block log for May 7 was a trial exhibit. It reflects that a routine check at 4:00 P.M. showed Johnson's cell door closed, and that he was fed in his cell at 4:01 P.M. The normal procedure for feeding a DCR inmate is to handcuff him through the cell bars, open the cell door, place his food tray inside, and then secure the cell door before uncuffing the inmate. The log does not reflect who fed Johnson at 4:01, and that prison official did not testify. There was testimony that escapes from isolated confinement are not uncommon, that inmates in isolation are clever at wedging obstructions that keep their cell doors from fully closing or locking, and that Johnson's cell block nickname was "Houdini." Lieutenant Hampton testified that he investigated the incident and concluded that Johnson most likely escaped because Holmes inadvertently opened the cell door, for example, by hitting an "override" button that opens seventeen cell doors at once. The jury was told that Holmes and another officer were subjects of a disciplinary hearing, but it was not told the results of that hearing.

II.

Holmes argues that the evidence was insufficient to support a finding that he violated plaintiffs' Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment by failing to protect them from Johnson's unprovoked attack. The jury necessarily found that Johnson escaped because Holmes for some reason opened Johnson's cell door, and the evidence is clearly sufficient to support that finding. The question is whether the evidence supports the additional finding of an Eighth Amendment violation. We view the facts and all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict. "Negligence, however, is not enough to establish [an Eighth Amendment] violation." Stephens v. Johnson, 83 F.3d 198, 201 (8th Cir.1996).

In Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994), the Supreme Court confirmed that a prison official violates the Eighth Amendment if he is deliberately indifferent to the need to protect an inmate from a substantial risk of serious harm from other inmates. The Court then undertook to define more precisely the concept of deliberate indifference. Because the Eighth Amendment bans cruel and unusual punishment, suits against prison officials must satisfy a subjective requirement, an inquiry into the prison official's state of mind. The Court concluded that deliberate indifference in this context means actual intent that the inmate be harmed, or knowledge that harm will result, or reckless disregard of a known excessive risk to inmate health and safety. See 511 U.S. at 835-40, 114 S.Ct. at 1977-81.

On appeal, Holmes first argues that there was insufficient evidence of an excessive risk of harm because there was no evidence that inmate Johnson was a risk to attack Newman or Chestnut unless they were kept separated. We disagree. There was testimony that prison officials isolate all DCR inmates because they are a potential danger to others. No doubt some prison rule violations suggest a greater propensity toward violence than others. But when prison administrators conclude that all inmates charged with rule violations should be isolated as dangerous, it would...