Walker v. White

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Plaintiff, an inmate at a correctional center, filed suit against two officers under 42 U.S.C. 1983 for failure to protect in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The jury found for the officers and plaintiff appealed. The court assumed without deciding that plaintiff's offer of proof sufficiently preserved the issue of whether the district court should have allowed cross-examination a corrections guard about a disciplinary report about the guard. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to permit the cross-examination because the probative value of the evidence was low, and the danger of unfair prejudice and a "mini-trial" was great. The court also held that the district court did not plainly err in admitting evidence of the second incident, which was less probative than the first and similarly risked unfair prejudice and confusion of the issues. Finally, the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting testimony about plaintiff's aggressive behavior toward cellmates where any error was harmless. View "Walker v. White" on Justia Law