United States Eleventh Circuit

In an action by ten inmates incarcerated at Florida State Prison against various officers and employees of the Florida Department of Corrections, alleging that the use of chemical agents on inmates with mental illness and other vulnerabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, judgment for plaintiffs is affirmed where: 1) a deceased plaintiff may still be a "prevailing party" entitled to attorneys' fees for the costs of the district court litigation notwithstanding his untimely death and the subsequent mootness of his lawsuit pending appeal; 2) defendants waived any challenge to the district court's use of the deliberate-indifference standard; and 3) the district court did not clearly err in finding that defendant had decompensated at times that he was sprayed with chemical agents and that he suffered psychological injury from these sprayings.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/23/2010
• Published 08/23/2010

Judges

• R. Lanier Anderson III

Court

• United States Eleventh Circuit

Counsel