INDIANTOWN, FLORIDA: Government personnel are normally immune from criminal liability under the notion of qualified immunity unless they break "clearly established" legislation. A recent petition submitted to the Supreme Court contests a ruling that granted a jail official immunity despite forcing an old diabetic Florida man into a feces-filled shower and preventing him from bathing his open wounds for a week.
What happened to Florida man Lynn Hamlet?
According to SCOTUSblog, Lynn Hamlet, who was 67 at the time, was detained in 2018 at the Martin Correctional Institution, a state jail in southern Florida. Following his recovery from a diabetic coma, Hamlet was discovered smuggling a bag of rice out of the jail canteen. Hamlet claims that he had a long-standing argument with the jail guard Officer Brandon Hoxie who found the rice in his possession. After the two exchanged words, the guard ordered him to be kept in isolation, per the Florida man.
Hamlet finally got to use the handicapped washroom a week later. He observed a potato chip bag filled with human feces and pee floating on the surface as the water level in the shower rose. To prevent exposing his open wounds on his ankles to the feces and urine, the 67-year-old requested Officer Hoxie's permission to exit the shower. Instead, according to Hamlet, Hoxie accused him of being responsible for the filth and forced him back inside the shower for an extra 30 to 40 minutes after initially letting him out.
When Hamlet went back to his cell, he saw that Hoxie had taken away his clean clothes and sheets. Besides, he was forbidden from taking a shower for another week. Hamlet attempted to clean his ankles of waste using the water from his toilet bowl. However, he was unable to tend to his injuries, fell sick, and eventually had to be placed in the hospital, where he had his first shower since the gross incident. The diabetic Florida man needed emergency surgery and a lengthy hospitalization due to a serious bacterial infection that weakened a heart valve.
Hamlet v Hoxie
Hamlet filed a lawsuit, claiming that Hoxie had wrongfully subjected him to feces in the shower and prevented him from cleaning his wounds for a week, infringing on his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. He contends to overturn the 11th Circuit's decision and seeks justice to grant review.
The Supreme Court recently ruled that prison authorities who forced a man to spend six days naked in human feces and wastewater-contaminated cells were not entitled to qualified immunity because the man's treatment was so obviously egregious, irrespective of whether they violated an established rule. The same logic, according to Hamlet, should apply to his situation.
The 11th Circuit US Court of Appeals upheld the ruling. Since Hoxie did not breach a clearly defined law, the court determined that he was entitled to qualified immunity. Despite Hamlet's citation of the earlier ruling that deprived the prison guard of qualified immunity, the 11th Circuit Court found that Hoxie was unable to comprehend that ruling forbade his behavior against Hamlet since his exposure to feces in the shower "was different in both degree and kind."
