Appeals panel rules in favor of former Delaware inmate

DOVER, Del. (AP) — A federal appeals court panel has ruled in favor of a former Delaware prison inmate who claimed he was deprived of his constitutional rights by being placed into solitary confinement for a long period despite his mental illness.

A three-judge panel ruled Monday that a federal judge wrongly dismissed a challenge by Angelo Lee Clark to the conditions of his confinement. Clark died earlier this year at age 66 and is being represented in the appeal by a family member.

The federal judge ruled in 2019 that housing a mentally ill inmate in solitary confinement for long periods of time does not in itself violate a clearly established Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

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