I just don’t get it. If I was on that jury he would not have gotten a cent. My hope is that the victims of his homicide can tap into this award.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A judge has slashed the $295,000 award a jury gave to a Wisconsin prisoner who claimed his rights were violated by being forced to sleep on a moldy, stinky mattress.
A federal jury awarded Reggie Townsend that amount in punitive damages in September. It found that New Lisbon Correctional Institution Sgt. Jerry Allen ignored Townsend’s complaints about the mattress being wet because he had to sleep near a shower.
Judge Barbara Crabb on Tuesday found the amount excessive. She ordered Townsend to accept** $29,500 **or go to trial over the amount.
Townsend’s attorney, David Harth, didn’t immediately return a message left at his office.
Townsend, 29, of Milwaukee, is serving a 23-year sentence for reckless homicide.
Well next thing you are going to tell me is that his masseuse was rough and he only gets basic cable and dial up internet! Do you want this guy to suffer. What did he ever do to others. You expect prisoners who killed someone else to not be pampered. How horrible.
If you haven’t sat on a jury of a trial longer than a day or two (I suppose those would even work), then I can see how people are astonished at the ridiculous nature of jurors handing out awards. I was on a 3 month civil trial jury a couple of years back, and after deliberating for almost a week, I have NO faith in the intelligence of “my peers” to come up with an adequate answer. I am amazed at how little people know, how little they are willing to adapt, and how poorly they listen to instruction.
While we were unanimous on our decision that there was fault, and we were told numerous times that we could only award based on the guidelines set forth (and what the financial “experts” testified to) - somehow people started pulling numbers out of their a$$. We even had 2 people who literally said “I knew from day one (he/she) was guilty”…despite every break, and at the end of the day, the judge reminding people NOT to make up their minds on day 1 and leaving an open mind until all the facts of the case are brought forward.
I started writing a movie script named *Barter for Justice *based on how some jurors talked other jurors into voting for one thing in return for something else. I have another friend who had a similar ordeal on a criminal jury, and I thought I just read another case where a juror was bullied into making a decision - in return for something else (lower penalty?).
When the money is not their own, people have no problem throwing it around like Monopoloy money. It really is a joke how many are clueless…
Are you a one trick pony or what??? Every post in every thread you continue to beat a dead horse…News flash, Elections have consequences… Run away Troll, run away…
It’s good to recognize how much of the problem is the juries. People love to blame the lawyers, but they’re just doing what they’re supposed to do – zealously represent the interests of their clients. Until juries realize that the money that pays these judgments does not just magically appear out of thin air, they’ll continue to overcompensate victims. I don’t think being forced to sleep on a disgusting mattress is meaningless, but it’s not a $295k injury either.
Um, he was forced to sleep on the mattress for 59 days. Not exactly waterboarding but not very humane either. I guess he could have slept on the concrete instead. The prison in question is a max. security prison.
