William Sampley and Sammy Martinez v. Ronald Ruettgers, Lieutenant, Wyoming State Penitentiary

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• recognizing that in maintaining control of inmates, a prison guard often is called upon to “make instantaneous, on-the-spot decisions concerning the need to apply force without having to second-guess himself”
• holding that wantonness exists when a prison guard intends to harm an inmate
• first quoting Martinez, 570 F.2d at 319; then quoting Martinez v. Chavez, 574 F.2d 1043, 1046 (10th Cir. 1978)
• prison guard's use of force constitutes cruel and unusual punishment only when it results in severe pain or lasting injury

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).