Sidley won a unanimous civil rights verdict against the Deputy Commissioner of New York State Prisons and the Superintendent of Five Points Correctional Facility for subjecting its client to nine years of solitary confinement.
After a five-day September trial that included testimony by several fact and expert witnesses, the jury found these Defendants violated the U.S. Constitution’s 8th Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment. The jury awarded compensatory damages and, more significantly, punitive damages.
This is a landmark decision. It is the first jury verdict, to the firm’s knowledge, on solitary confinement in New York state in a quarter century, and the first time that solitary confinement in New York state prisons was found cruel and unusual under the high standards required to prove an 8th Amendment violation.
This and other litigations Sidley has brought on behalf of inmates regarding New York’s solitary confinement practices follow on the heels of significant literature and nationwide activity addressing prolonged solitary confinement. Many states have recently passed new laws to limit the time that an inmate may be isolated. New York’s version of that law — the HALT Act — limits that time to 15 consecutive days.
The Sidley trial team was led by Sona De, Ellen Dunn, and Michael Lisak, and included Leslie Kuhn-Thayer, Tyler Domino, Cassandra Liu, Laura Sorice, and Briana Merritt.
The case is Williams v. O’Gorman et al., United States District Court, Northern District of New York, Case No. 9:20-CV-01417.
After a five-day September trial that included testimony by several fact and expert witnesses, the jury found these Defendants violated the U.S. Constitution’s 8th Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment. The jury awarded compensatory damages and, more significantly, punitive damages.
This is a landmark decision. It is the first jury verdict, to the firm’s knowledge, on solitary confinement in New York state in a quarter century, and the first time that solitary confinement in New York state prisons was found cruel and unusual under the high standards required to prove an 8th Amendment violation.
This and other litigations Sidley has brought on behalf of inmates regarding New York’s solitary confinement practices follow on the heels of significant literature and nationwide activity addressing prolonged solitary confinement. Many states have recently passed new laws to limit the time that an inmate may be isolated. New York’s version of that law — the HALT Act — limits that time to 15 consecutive days.
The Sidley trial team was led by Sona De, Ellen Dunn, and Michael Lisak, and included Leslie Kuhn-Thayer, Tyler Domino, Cassandra Liu, Laura Sorice, and Briana Merritt.
The case is Williams v. O’Gorman et al., United States District Court, Northern District of New York, Case No. 9:20-CV-01417.
