Seventh Circuit · 2005 · Death in county jail · Excessive force
$56.5 million
$29,000,000 compensatory + $27,500,000 punitive — Estate of Moreland v. Dieter, 395 F.3d 747
Christopher Moreland died in the St. Joseph County jail in Indiana. Two former sheriff's deputies were found liable for violating his civil rights by wrongfully causing his death through unnecessary and excessive force.
The jury awarded $29 million in compensatory damages and $27.5 million in punitive damages — $15 million against one deputy and $12.5 million against the other. The deputies appealed, arguing the punitive award was unconstitutionally excessive. The Seventh Circuit noted that the defendants had not even attempted to meet the standard required to overturn it.
Why it matters: This is what a jail death caused by guard violence can be worth when the case is fully built and tried. Punitive damages against individual officers are available under § 1983 when conduct is reckless or callously indifferent — and they can exceed the compensatory award. Start a case review →
Sixth Circuit · 2025 · Wrongful conviction · Fabricated evidence
$20 million
Settlement recorded in the opinion — Clark v. Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Gov't, 130 F.4th 571
Jeffrey Clark and Garr Keith Hardin spent decades in Kentucky prisons before their convictions were set aside. They sued the city, its officials, and others over the investigation that put them there.
The Sixth Circuit's 2025 opinion records that Louisville and its officials settled with Clark and Hardin for some $20 million, with claims still pending against other defendants for alleged Brady violations and falsification of evidence.
Why it matters: Civil rights law reaches how a person was convicted, not only how they were treated once inside. Where evidence was fabricated or exculpatory evidence was buried, the years lost are compensable. Start a case review →
Seventh Circuit, en banc · 2020 · Sexual assault by a jail guard
$11.5 million
$2,000,000 compensatory + $3,750,000 punitive, to each of two plaintiffs — J.K.J. v. Polk County, 960 F.3d 367 (en banc)
Two women were repeatedly sexually assaulted by a guard at the Polk County jail in Wisconsin. They sued the guard and the county itself, arguing the county's failure to act on an obvious risk made it liable under Monell.
The jury awarded each woman $2 million in compensatory damages and $3.75 million in punitive damages. The county fought the verdict all the way to the full Seventh Circuit sitting en banc — which affirmed, describing the county's own deliberate choice to stand by while women in its care faced an unmistakable risk of sexual assault.
Why it matters: A county can be held liable for what a single employee did, even without a prior pattern of complaints, where the risk was obvious and it did nothing. That is one of the hardest things to prove in this area of law — and it has been done. Start a case review →
Sixth Circuit · 2024 · Death in county jail · Deliberate indifference
$6.4 million
Compensatory damages, jury verdict — Jones v. Kent County, Mich., 115 F.4th 504
A jury found that staff at the Kent County Correctional Facility in Michigan were deliberately indifferent to a serious medical need, and that their indifference was a proximate cause of Mr. Jones's death. After a twelve-day trial, it awarded his estate $6.4 million in compensatory damages on the § 1983 claim.
The defendants asked the Sixth Circuit to throw out the verdict or order a new trial.
Why it matters: This is the standard jail medical-neglect fact pattern — a person visibly deteriorating in a cell while staff do not act. It is provable, and juries award seven figures for it. If a loved one died in a jail after being ignored, have the record reviewed →
Maryland Court of Appeals · 2011 · Wrongful detention and interrogation
$6.2 million
$5,200,000 compensatory against the county + over $1,000,000 punitive against individual officers — Prince George's County v. Longtin, 419 Md. 450
Keith Longtin was held and interrogated over a killing he did not commit, and spent months in prison before he was released. He sued the police department, the county, and individual officers, and won on all eight counts submitted to the jury.
The jury awarded $5.2 million in compensatory damages against the county and returned punitive damages of over $1 million against the individual officers. Maryland's intermediate appellate court affirmed, and the state's highest court took the case and reviewed it.
Why it matters: Damages can attach to the front end of a case — the arrest, the interrogation, the detention — not only to what happened in a cell afterward. Start a case review →
Sixth Circuit · 2008 · Death in state prison · Denied medical care
$4.5 million
$1,500,000 compensatory (reduced from $2,000,000) + $3,000,000 punitive — Gibson v. Moskowitz, 523 F.3d 657
An incarcerated man at Michigan's Riverside Correctional Facility was held for several days in an observation room at 90 to 100 degrees. He died of dehydration, having lost forty pounds over four and a half days.
A jury found the prison physician deliberately indifferent and awarded $2 million in compensatory damages — later reduced to $1.5 million to account for other defendants' settlements — plus $3 million in punitive damages. The Sixth Circuit held the district court did not abuse its discretion in letting the compensatory award stand, and found the punitive-to-compensatory ratio well within constitutional limits.
Why it matters: Individual medical staff — not just the institution — can be held personally liable, including for punitive damages. Other defendants settling does not end the case against the one who refused to act. Start a case review →
U.S. Supreme Court · 2002 · Excessive punishment · Qualified immunity defeated
Guards lost qualified immunity for chaining a man to a hitching post
Hope v. Pelzer, 536 U.S. 730
Larry Hope was handcuffed to a hitching post at Limestone Prison in Alabama on two occasions. The second time he was held there roughly seven hours, made to take his shirt off so the sun burned his skin, given water only once or twice, denied bathroom breaks, and taunted by a guard.
The Eleventh Circuit agreed this violated the Eighth Amendment but let the guards off on qualified immunity, reasoning that no earlier case had “materially similar” facts. The Supreme Court reversed. It held that officials can be on notice their conduct is unconstitutional even in novel circumstances — the question is whether the state of the law gave them fair warning, not whether a prior case matched fact-for-fact.
Why it matters: Qualified immunity is the defense that ends most prisoner civil rights cases. Hope is the answer to “no case has facts exactly like yours.” It does not have to. Obvious cruelty is its own notice. Start a case review →
