Dist. Ct. erred in dismissing plaintiff-prisoner’s section 1983 action alleging that defendants-prison guards beat him during prison incident in retaliation for filing grievances, where said dismissal was done after Dist. Ct. had declined plaintiff’s request for recruitment of counsel based on its believe that plaintiff was able to litigate case pro se. Plaintiff alleged that he had only 8th grade education, was heavily medicated with psychotropic drugs, and used assistance of another prisoner. Moreover, Dist. Ct. should have granted plaintiff’s request for counsel where, in addition to plaintiff's allegations: (1) Dist. Ct. did not disbelieve plaintiff’s contention that he used another prisoner to assist him in instant case; and (2) counsel could have helped plaintiff on merits of case by amending complaint to allege that force used by defendants against him exceeded any force that would have been necessary to subdue him in instant altercation with defendants.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Prisoner