Edward H. Pennington, Jr.; Anthony L. Nevels Plaintiffs v. Paul Smith, Sergeant; County Executive Mike Sanders, Jackson County Executive Defendants (2019)

[Unpublished]

John Williams, an inmate formerly confined in the Jackson County Detention Center in Kansas City, Missouri, appeals the adverse judgment entered by the district court ¹ following a jury trial in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action challenging the prison’s mail policy. Having carefully reviewed the parties’ arguments on appeal, we find no basis for reversal. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion by submitting the issues to the jury, see PFS Distrib. Co. v. Raduechel, 574 F.3d 580, 596 (8th Cir. 2009) (jury instructions are reviewed for abuse of discretion); Henderson v. Terhune, 379 F.3d 709, 712 (9th Cir. 2004) (whether regulation impermissibly restricts First Amendment rights under Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 107 S.Ct. 2254, 96 L.Ed.2d 64 (1987) is mixed question of law and fact; legitimacy of asserted penological interest is a finding of fact); or by admitting evidence of Williams’s prior convictions, see United States v. Has No Horse, 11 F.3d 104, 106 (8th Cir. 1993) (admissibility of evidence is reviewed for abuse of discretion). We further conclude that Williams failed to preserve his sufficiency-of-the-evidence argument at trial, see Unitherm Food Sys. v. Swift-Eckrich, Inc., 546 U.S. 394, 400-01, 126 S.Ct. 980, 163 L.Ed.2d 974 (2006) (in absence of post-verdict motion under Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(b), appellate court lacks power to direct district court to enter judgment contrary to that permitted to stand); and we reject his argument that Jackson County presented inconsistent arguments about its mail policy. Accordingly, the judgment is affirmed, see 8th Cir. R. 47B, and the pending motion is denied.

FOOTNOTES

1.   The Honorable Brian C. Wimes, United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri.

PER CURIAM.