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| Supreme Court Asked To Find Alabama 'Hitching Post' Unconstitutional |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 04/26/2002 |
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The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether it is against the nation's Constitution to handcuff uncooperative prisoners to a metal pole, sometimes for hours, in the heat of the southern state of Alabama. Several Supreme Court justices did not attempt to hide their disgust or disapproval recently as they heard of the practice, now discontinued. The dispute is part of a broader legal question of whether a former inmate may sue officers. A lower U.S. federal appeals court previously found the 'hitching post' was unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment, but also said that the officers have official immunity and cannot be sued. 'Do you think the allegations here do not suffice?' Justice Sandra Day O'Connor asked a lawyer for 16 states that back Alabama. 'That a reasonable person would not be aware that you cannot chain a person to a post or rail in the heat without water more than once or twice ... for seven hours?' 'Without bathroom breaks,' added Justice John Paul Stevens. Former inmate Larry Hope contends he was twice chained to an outdoor pole in 1995 as punishment for fighting while assigned to forced work. He contends that officers removed his shirt on a broiling day and refused him enough water. Law enforcement officials generally enjoy what is called qualified immunity from lawsuits, unless their conduct violates the U.S. Constitution or established law. At issue is how officers would know that their conduct was unconstitutional. Hope's lawyers claim that a previous appeals court ruling forbidding punishment by similar restraint should have given the officers fair warning that their treatment was unconstitutional. As a result, Hope should be able to sue, his lawyers argue. Alabama was the only state using the hitching post. But all states would be affected by a court ruling opening prison guards to more lawsuits. Sixteen states joined Alabama in arguing that public officials cannot be expected to know how judges have treated previous cases. 'They have to make split-second decisions,' lawyer Gene Schaerr argued for the states. In 1998, a federal judge found the hitching posts were unconstitutional as they were used in Alabama but told the state it could try to devise a more humane application of the punishment. Instead, the state stopped using the pole. |
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