Stark v. Lee County
Rights Behind Bars and the National Association for Public Defense filed a brief as amici for a case brought by a detainee who was left in five-point shackles in the backseat of a deputy sheriff’s cruiser returning to jail from a medical appointment when the sheriff chose to respond to a bank robbery and engage in a high-speed chase, causing the detainee to suffer serious injuries. The court below denied qualified immunity because Defendant had violated the detainee’s clearly established Eighth Amendment rights by being deliberately indifferent to his health and safety. RBB and NAPD argue that even if the Eighth Circuit were to grant qualified immunity as to plaintiff’s federal claim, it cannot do so on the analogous state constitutional claim for cruel and unusual punishment because both the state qualified immunity standard and state constitutional standard are distinct from and broader than their federal equivalents.