The Washington Post’s George Will was out with an important op-ed this week that shines a spotlight on the legal loophole of “qualified immunity,” a principle that gives lawsuit protection to government workers acting in an official capacity. Will’s piece centers on a U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that prevented a family from suing anyone in a South Carolina prison where their inmate family-member was strangled to death.
In 2017 four inmates were lured to the prison cell of two prisoners serving life sentences, and systematically stomped, stabbed and strangled to death one by one while guards failed to check in on obvious suspicious behavior. The victim of the family who brought the civil suit, John King, was lured to the murderous cell with the promise of coffee, but was then strangled with an extension cord and stuffed under a bed — all while the prison cell door was covered up with a trash bag to obstruct the view.
King’s family argued that John’s death resulted from “deliberate indifference” by prison officials, but the appeals court affirmed a lower court decision which granted blanket immunity to all officials party to the civil suit. One appellant judge, James A. Wynn Jr., offered a scathing dissent, saying the pair of jailhouse murderers was able to circulate through the prison unit while four corpses went unnoticed in their cell during five separate checks.
Read or listen to the entire op-ed piece here.
Carla Conti is a true crime journalist, storyteller, and prison reform advocate. Look for Chained Birds: A Crimemoir, her true crime memoir and exposé on federal prison abuse, corruption, and prison gang culture in 2024.
