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8th Amendment Violation – 1st Amendment violation

By: Derek Hawkins//December 5, 2016//

8th Amendment Violation – 1st Amendment violation

By: Derek Hawkins//December 5, 2016//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Seyon R. Haywood v. Jody Hathaway

Case No.: 12-1678

Officials: EASTERBROOK, RIPPLE, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

Focus: 8th Amendment Violation – 1st Amendment violation

Seyon Haywood, formerly an inmate at Illinois’s Shawnee Correctional Center, accused his auto mechanics teacher of attacking him. Guards charged him with making false statements. A disciplinary panel found him guilty and ordered him transferred to segregation for two months; the panel also revoked one month of good‐time credit. After these events he was transferred to a different prison, where he remains in custody. Haywood contends in this proceeding under 42 U.S.C. §1983 that these penalties violate his right to speech, protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment (applied to states by the Fourteenth). He also alleges that the conditions of his confinement in segregation were cruel and unusual, violating the Eighth Amendment (again applied via the Fourteenth). The district court dismissed the first claim on the pleadings and granted summary judgment to defendants on the second. The only defendant against whom Haywood still seeks damages is Jody Hathaway, Shawnee’s Warden during Haywood’s time there.

Affirmed in Part

Reversed in Part

Remanded

Full Text


Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

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