Farmer v. Brennan
- Decided
- June 6, 1994
- Docket
- 92-7247
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
Cited 28,443 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- holding that a prisoner’s Eighth Amendment right was not violated unless prison officials knowingly ignored the risks to health — Lewis v. Lynn (2001)
- holding that inmate could prove by circumstantial evidence that prison officials had knowledge of a substantial risk of harm to inmate — Lancaster v. Monroe County (1997)
- holding that a factfinder can conclude that a prison official was aware of a serious risk if the risk was obvious — Ernest Porter v. Pennsylvania Department of Cor (2020)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court.
A prison official’s “deliberate indifference” to a substantial risk of serious harm to an inmate violates the Eighth Amendment. See Helling v. McKinney 509 U. S. 25 (1993); Wilson v. Seiter, 501 U. S. 294 (1991); Estelle v. Gamble, 429 [*829] U. S. 97 (1976). This case requires us to define the term “deliberate indifference,” as we do by requiring a showing that the official was subjectively aware of the risk.
I
Statutes cited
Cite this
Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994)Read the full opinion
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