Supreme Court Hears Excessive Force Case From Wisconsin Inmate

The constitutional rights of Wisconsin jail inmate are at the center of a case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court Monday.

Michael Kingsley says jailers used excessive force when they moved him to a segregation cell. In 2010 Kingsley was awaiting trial on a drug charges in the Tomah city jail. He said officers forced him down, handcuffed him and then shocked him with a Taser. Kingsley claims that violated his Fourth-Amendment rights because he hadn’t been convicted yet.

Jail officials have argued that a ruling in Kingsley’s favor could force them to separate convicts from pre-trial detainees. Wisconsin American Civil Liberties Union attorney Larry Dupuis said that shouldn’t be necessary.

Corrections officers “just need to be able to identify them and even then they don’t really need to identify them if they’re going to treat them civilly and humanely,” Dupuis said.

The court is expected to decide whether pre-trial inmates who file excessive force suits have to prove the force was intentionally cruel or just unreasonable.