$3 Million Settlement for an Inmate Paralyzed After an Attack Through a Broken Hinds County Jail Lock
After trial: Settlement approved by the Hinds County Board of Supervisors on April 21, 2008. The county's insurer covered a third and the county funded the rest in installments beginning in May 2008.
Won by Turnage Law Office.
On March 12, 2007 Michael Burnley, 23, was in his cell at the Hinds County jail in Raymond when another prisoner, John Earl Kennedy, jimmied the faulty lock on the door, got in, and repeatedly body-slammed him. Burnley was left paralyzed from mid-chest down. Sheriff Malcolm McMillin acknowledged the cell locks had been faulty since the jail opened in 1994, a fourteen-year-old defect that cost about $20,000 to fix. The county settled his Section 1983 suit on April 21, 2008 for $3,000,000.
What happened
Michael Abram Burnley Jr. was 23 and a prisoner in the Hinds County jail in Raymond, Mississippi. On the evening of March 12, 2007 another prisoner, John Earl Kennedy, jimmied the faulty lock on Burnley's cell door, let himself in, and body-slammed him repeatedly.
Burnley was left paralyzed from the middle of his chest down.
The lock was not a surprise to anyone who ran the jail. Sheriff Malcolm McMillin acknowledged that the cell door locks had been faulty and an ongoing problem since the jail opened in 1994. Repairing them cost about $20,000. The county then released Burnley early, which shed its responsibility for his medical costs.
Ellis Turnage of Cleveland, Mississippi filed suit for Burnley on October 9, 2007 under 42 U.S.C. 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, No. 3:07-cv-599, on the theory that the county had failed to protect him from a known danger. On April 21, 2008 the Hinds County Board of Supervisors voted to settle for $3,000,000. The county's insurer covered $1,000,000 and the county agreed to pay the remaining $2,000,000 in installments, the first $300,000 due in May 2008.
Kennedy was sentenced to 15 years at Parchman for the assault.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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