Georgia sheriff asks appeals court to toss conviction for violating detainees’ civil rights

ATLANTA (CN) — A Georgia sheriff who was found guilty of violating the civil rights of six detainees and causing them physical pain and bodily injury in October 2022 asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to overturn his conviction.

Victor Hill, who served as Clayton County sheriff for 10 years, was prosecuted by the government for using unnecessary force by strapping detainees into restraint chairs for four or more hours, even though they were compliant with officers and not posing any threats inside the jail.

In his appeal before the 11th Circuit, Hill argues that he received no fair warning that his conduct was criminal. He says there is no law clearly establishing that restraint chairs constitute excessive force, comparing them to handcuffs.

U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus seemed unpersuaded by that analogy, noting that there was "certainly enough evidence that the jury found the six individuals who were restrained posed no threat at the time the restraints were imposed."

The Bill Clinton appointee brought up a Supreme Court case that found punishing an Alabama prison inmate by shackling him to a hitching post in the sun for seven hours violated the Eighth Amendment. He added that the ruling should have provided Hill with some idea of what is improper.

U.S. Circuit Judge Robin Rosenbaum, appointed by Barack Obama, also questioned how Hill's use of the restraint chairs differed from the hitching post case.

She pointed out that Hill recognized his own use-of-force policies and the use of restraint chairs. The policy said they should “never be authorized as a form of punishment," but only in an emergency if a detainee exhibits violent or uncontrollable behavior, or to prevent self-injury, injury to others or property damage when other control techniques are not effective.

Many of the victims who were restrained testified about urinating on themselves multiple times and having scars on their wrists from being tied down. One of them was a 17-year-old who was restrained in a chair for 10 consecutive hours after he argued with his mother and trashed a house.

During trial, prosecutors showed a one word text from Hill that said "chair," in response to the 17-year-old's arrest, before he arrived at the jail.

"How would the jury misconstrue that as punitive?" Rosenbaum asked Hill's attorney, Lynsey Barron of Barron Law.

Hill also argued that the district court judge coerced the verdict by allowing the jury’s majority to bully a holdout juror, and by calling the holdout into court twice for public interrogation. He argues the judge gave two Allen instructions, and misread the final Allen instruction to imply that the jury must find Hill guilty if it had reasonable doubt.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Hobson, representing the government, told the 11th Circuit panel that the court has the discretion to question a juror and there is no evidence to show that the questioned juror was a single holdout.

During trial deliberations, jurors sent multiple notes to U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross, an Obama appointee, expressing concern that one particular juror was not capable of deliberating with the others and refused to follow the law or the court's instructions.

The uncooperative juror told the others that “the sheriff and the president are above the law and not required to follow the Constitution." After they were able to reach a unanimous verdict, the juror told reporters that he believed "justice was served."

Marcus said he believes the judge was within her discretion to question whether the juror was sufficiently competent the first time he was called out, but questioned the purpose of bringing him for questioning a second time and whether that could be construed as being "coercive."

U.S. Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom, a Donald Trump appointee, rounded out the three-judge panel. The judges did not signal when they intend to release a ruling.

Hill received a 10-year sentence and was recently released to community confinement two months shy of spending one year in an Arkansas prison.

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