Pruitt v. Mote

SYKES, Circuit Judge.

Benjamin Pruitt, an inmate at the Pontiac Correctional Center in Illinois, filed a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging he was sexually assaulted by a prison guard and that prison employees failed to protect him from this assault. Prior to trial Pruitt filed four motions asking the district court to appoint an attorney to represent him. With the last two motions, Pruitt submitted the results of prison tests showing he had the educational level of an early sixth grader (his composite math and reading scores put him at grade level 6.2). The court denied each of these motions with a brief, conclusory order, observing each time that the case was not “so complex or intricate that a trained attorney is necessary.” Proceeding pro se, Pruitt tried his claims before a jury and lost. The sole issue on appeal is the district court’s denial of Pruitt’s motions for appointment of counsel.

We reverse. Although there is no constitutional or statutory right to court-appointed counsel in federal civil litigation, an indigent civil litigant may ask the district court to request an attorney to represent him pro bono publico. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(1) (in proceedings in forma pau-peris, “[t]he court may request an attorney to represent any person unable to afford counsel”). The district court construed Pruitt’s motions as requests for pro bono counsel under § 1915(e)(1) and summarily denied them. In doing so, the court addressed only the complexity of the case, omitting any inquiry into Pruitt’s competence to litigate his own claims.