Wilkerson v. Stalder

Plaintiff filed suit against various prison officials, alleging a procedural due process claim arising out of his 39 years of continuous incarceration in solitary confinement. Prison officials appealed the district court's denial of their motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. The court concluded that, given the extraordinarily lengthy detention and the isolating, restrictive conditions that the district court considered in this instance, there is no basis for concluding that prison officials may avoid the established constitutional rights of prisoners by transferring them to a new facility and wiping the slate clean, while continuing all of the conditions that the prisoner has challenged; no reasonable prison official could conclude that continuing four decades in indefinite solitary confinement would not implicate a liberty interest protected by due process; and, having found a clearly established liberty interest, the court affirmed the denial of summary judgment based on qualified immunity. View "Wilkerson v. Stalder" on Justia Law