Civil Rights

The Fourth Amendment to the American Constitution prevents law enforcement agencies from conducting unauthorized searches and seizures. This Amendment has received plenty of publicity recently because of a dramatic increase in the issuance of no-knock search warrants.

Abuse of power is wrong, and some of the most egregious abuses are those committed by law enforcement acting unlawfully under the authority of their office. Fortunately, the United States Constitution has the Bill of Rights, which guarantees all persons in this country protection from government misconduct.

The right to be free from excessive force, the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and the right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment are fundamental rights protected by law. Morgan & Morgan’s civil rights group litigates violations of these rights.

Specifically, we represent victims of police brutality and wrongful imprisonment, including the victims of police shootings. Additionally, we represent prison inmates who were physically and sexually abused or assaulted by staff. We may also be able to help the loved ones of prisoners who committed suicide in prison, and those injured or killed when their medical needs were neglected.

The most notable cases in which police officers commit civil rights violations are unlawful shootings. And many more shootings resulted in catastrophic, but non-fatal injuries. Some of these uses of deadly force were justified, but many were not. Less than lethal force can also cause catastrophic, life altering injuries. Any use of excessive force by a police officer is a violation of the victims civil rights regardless of the type of force used. There is no excuse for police officers acting with excessive force, and offending officers should be held accountable for unlawful actions.

When someone is in jail or prison they lose their freedom, not their civil rights. Unfortunately, there is widespread evidence of misconduct by corrupt jail and prison staff who physically and sexually assault inmates, and grossly neglect their medical needs.

In a 2010 report on physical and sexual assault in male prisons, 21 percent of the 6,964 inmates who participated in the study claimed to have been physically assaulted by a staff member and 1.98 percent claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a staff member. In both sets of statistics, staff-on-inmate physical and sexual assault occurred more frequently than inmate-on-inmate assaults of the same kind.

Any sexual contact between inmates and staff is unlawful, as determined by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC). Beside acts of physical and sexual assault, prison staff can also commit civil rights violations by not acting when they should. One example of deliberate indifference is when prison staff consciously ignore the serious medical needs of an inmate, which results in a more significant injury than would have otherwise occurred if the inmate had received medical care.

Another instance where not acting can lead to a civil rights violation involves jail suicides. Suicide is the third-leading cause of death in U.S. prisons and jails, and has increased sharply in recent years, according to a Washington Post report. If an inmate is known to be suicidal but jail officials fail to act on that knowledge, this can also be a civil rights violation.