Killed Inmate In Nevada To Get $1.6 Million Settlement

Killed Inmate In Nevada To Get $1.6 Million Settlement

Introduction

The family of a shackled prisoner who was fatally shot in 2014 by a trainee prison guard has settled a legal dispute with Nevada prison officials for $1.6 million, bringing to an end a nearly ten-year legal struggle that highlighted concerns about the use of shotguns in state prisons.
 
Less than two years after the prisoner's death at High Desert State Prison in November 2014, the Nevada Department of Corrections declared that shotguns had been removed from all of its facilities.
 
After many hours of talks, a U.S. District Judge acknowledged the settlement's parameters as a just conclusion; nevertheless, the agreement is still subject to final approval by the state's Board of Examiners. As early as June or July, the board might hear the settlement. 
 
For the state prison system, the agreement represents one of the most costly wrongful death settlements in recent memory. The Department's spokesperson chose not to respond. An email request for comment was not answered by the agency's legal counsel.
 
The inmate's death was described as an execution by the family's legal representatives. Prison officials allegedly created a "gladiator-like scenario" by allowing two chained convicts to fight in a shower hallway, where inmates are meant to be kept apart, according to their civil rights and wrongful death complaint filed in 2015. 
 
According to the lawsuit, the altercation came to an end when the prison guard trainee fired one warning shot and three real shotgun shots down the hallway, killing the inmate. The second prisoner suffered injuries but lived. The prisoner was dying from the consequences of a battery that occurred in Las Vegas in 2012.
 
The inmate was shot by a guard at the jail outside of Las Vegas, but state prison officials did not reveal this when they reported the inmate's death the next day. When the Clark County coroner declared his death a murder due to gunshot wounds to the head, neck, and chest months later, those specifics came to light.
 
After prison officials discovered that two other guards had lied and disregarded their responsibilities during the incident, they both resigned.