Baker v. Delo

MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judge. In 1992, Robert Baker, an inmate in a state prison in Missouri, filed suit in federal court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that various prison employees had subjected him to unconstitutional conditions of confinement and had used excessive force on him. Specifically, Mr. Baker alleged that prison employees swept garbage into his cell, that he slipped and fell as a result, and that, after a visit to the medical unit, prison employees further injured him by dragging him back to his cell. Twelve prison employees were eventually named as defendants. Of those, six were later dismissed, five apparently by agreement of the parties and one by the trial court's grant of judgment as a matter of law.