Skinner v. Spellman, 72-2041.
Decision Date | 31 May 1973 |
Docket Number | No. 72-2041.,72-2041. |
Citation | 480 F.2d 539 |
Parties | Ned S. SKINNER, Captain, etc., Appellant, v. Raymond F. SPELLMAN, Appellee. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Andrew P. Miller, Atty. Gen. of Va., and Vann H. Lefcoe, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellant.
George W. Gillmor, Durham, N. C., (E. David White, III and Raymond L. Yasser, third-year students at Duke University School of Law) for appellee.
Before BOREMAN and WINTER, Circuit Judges, and BLAIR, District Judge.
This is an appeal from the verdict of the district court in a suit under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, entering judgment in the amount of $100.00 against defendant-appellant for violating plaintiff-appellee's right to due process of law in a prison disciplinary proceeding. Appellant contends that the district court erred by 1) applying Landman v. Royster, 333 F.Supp. 621 (E.D.Va.1971), retroactively to the facts of the case and 2) in holding that good faith reliance on standard operating procedure was not available as a defense.
The district court found the disciplinary proceeding in question lacked due process in that there was no prior written notice of the charges, the prisoner was not given a reasonable time to prepare a defense, and one of the members of the adjustment committee hearing the case had prior knowledge of the incident. These findings are not clearly erroneous. In reaching them, the district judge cited his opinion in Landman v. Royster, supra, wherein he had reviewed in detail the due process requirements which must attend a prison disciplinary proceeding. We do not see this as a retroactive application of Landman. The district court's citing of Landman was merely a reference by the court to a current decision on point and in this we find no error.
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