Plaintiff filed a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. ยง 1983 alleging that his constitutional rights were violated while he was held in pretrial detention because two guards ignored his requests to see crisis counseling and plaintiff suffered a severe brain injury when he attempted suicide while awaiting trial. After lengthy proceedings, plaintiff appealed from a third trial which resulted in a verdict for the defendants. Plaintiff argued on appeal that the jury instructions erroneously required proof that the officers were subjectively aware of or strongly suspected a high likelihood of self-harm. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. While the appellate court agreed that the instruction incorrectly stated that plaintiff was required to prove subjective awareness of the risk of harm and the jury should instead have been instructed that plaintiff was required to prove that the defendants acted in a manner that was objectively unreasonable, the court nonetheless concluded that the error was harmless because it did not prejudice the outcome. (ROVNER and HAMILTON, concurring)
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Jury Instructions