A Battle Lost, But Progress In the War.

While an inmate in Texas who claims Texas officials willfully disregarded his complaints that he was being victimized by prison rape in a jury trial, his case has established the scenario he claimed to have occurred as a valid grounds for bringing a civil rights suit in the conservative 5th Circuit.

"We conclude that Johnson's grievances were sufficient to give prison officials fair notice that there might have been a sexual orientation-related aspect to Johnson's problem," the judges wrote in the ruling. Judges, citing a 1994 Supreme Court decision that officials have a duty to protect inmates from violent prisoners, also ruled that the case can proceed under the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

Via Talk Left.

This leaves future victims with a clear road map to follow in getting their cases to juries, knowing what facts they will need to establish at trial and what juries are looking for in similar cases.