SPOKANE, Wash. — Keeping an inmate in a special cell at the Airway Heights prison where a light is always on might qualify as cruel and unusual punishment as a prisoner claimed, a federal appeals court said.
Or it might not. A three-judge panel for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case of inmate Neil Grenning back to a judge in Spokane for further hearings because state officials didn’t provide enough information on how bright the light was and how it affected Grenning before his lawsuit was dismissed. Read more.