Hope V. Pelzer - Background

Background

In 1995, Alabama's prisons employed chain gangs and the hitching post. A hitching post is a "horizontal bar made of sturdy, nonflexible material placed between 45 and 57 inches from the ground. Inmates are handcuffed to the hitching post in a standing position and remain standing the entire time they are placed on the post. Most inmates are shackled to the hitching post with their two hands relatively close together and at face level." "The most repeated complaint about the hitching post was the strain it produced on inmates' muscles by forcing them to remain in a standing position with their arms raised in a stationary position for a long period of time. In addition to their exposure to sunburn, dehydration, and muscle aches, the inmates are also placed in substantial pain when the sun heats the handcuffs that shackle them to the hitching post, or heats the hitching post itself." In a related case, several other inmates "described the way in which the handcuffs burned and chafed their skin during their placement on the post."

Larry Hope, an inmate at Limestone Prison, was punished by the hitching post on two occasions. On May 11, 1995, Hope was working on a chain gang near an interstate highway when he got into an argument with another inmate. Both men were chained to the hitching post. Because Hope was only slightly taller than the hitching post, his arms were above shoulder height and grew tired from being handcuffed so high. Whenever he tried to move his arms to improve his circulation, the handcuffs cut into his wrists. Guards came by every 15 minutes to offer him water and a bathroom break, and Hope's responses were recorded in a log. Hope was let go two hours later when it was determined that the other man initiated the argument.

On June 7, 1995, however, Hope's punishment was more severe. Hope had fallen asleep during the bus ride out to the work site and was "less than prompt" in getting off the bus once it arrived there. Hope got into a fight with a guard, during which four other guards intervened and subdued Hope. The guards took Hope back to Limestone and put him on the hitching post for seven hours. The guards forced Hope to remove his shirt, and the sun burned his skin. He received water only once or twice during the day and had no bathroom breaks. At one point, one of the guards taunted him by first allowing some dogs to drink some water before bringing the water closer to him and then spilling it on the ground.

Hope sued three guards under 42 U.S.C. § 1983—the three guards involved in the May incident, one of whom was also involved in the June incident. Without deciding whether "the very act of placing him on a restraining bar for a period of hours as a form of punishment" violated the Eighth Amendment, the district court determined that the guards were entitled to qualified immunity, and entered judgment in their favor. The Eleventh Circuit determined that the use of the hitching post was cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Nevertheless, it affirmed the grant of qualified immunity because, in its view, the hitching post was not materially similar to other forms of punishment with respect to which it was "clearly established" that they were cruel and unusual.