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Civil Rights; Qualified immunity; prisons

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//May 24, 2012//

Civil Rights; Qualified immunity; prisons

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//May 24, 2012//

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Civil Rights
Qualified immunity; prisons

Prison officials are not entitled to qualified immunity on a claim that they were deliberately indifferent to a prisoner’s suicide.

“Having established that plaintiff has alleged facts that, if proven, show the defendants violated a constitutional
right, we must evaluate whether they would be entitled to qualified immunity under the second prong of the qualified immunity analysis; that the constitutional right must be clearly established. The defendants urge this Court to apply a very high threshold for this prong.

They argue for an examination of this prong in such a specific manner that virtually nothing besides intentionally harmful actions could be ‘clearly established.’ Under defendants’ analysis, for a right to be clearly established there must be precedent holding that a prisoner has a constitutional right specific to the conduct alleged. However, the cases in this circuit have understood the term ‘right’ in a broader sense. For example, in Cavalieri v. Shepard, we stated that the right
that Cavalieri was asserting is ‘the right to be free from deliberate indifference to suicide.’ 321 F.3d 616, 623 (7th
Cir. 2003) (citing Hall v. Ryan, 957 F.2d 402, 406 (7th Cir. 1992). Here, plaintiff asserts the same right. We therefore
conclude that that right was clearly established in 2009 as it was in 1998. See also Sanville v. McCaughtry, 266 F.3d 724 (7th Cir. 2001).”

Affirmed.

11-3233 Estate of Miller v. Tobiasz

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Conley, J., Coleman, J.

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