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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A prisoner who says guards allowed other inmates to attack him following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has received court approval to move forward with a lawsuit filed against the state seeking at least $1 million in damages.
Jacques Dupree Miranda, a 31-year-old Muslim, is accusing the Utah Department of Corrections and individual officers of cruel and unusual punishment, negligence, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violation of his constitutional rights.
Miranda was granted approval Thursday to file the lawsuit after U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart found Miranda's circumstances met a three-part test applied to such cases.
Miranda had been convicted of theft and was being held in the Utah State Prison when he said he was attacked by death-row inmate Troy Michael Kell and another inmate in maximum security on Sept. 20, 2001. According to a Web site run by the Muslim Civil Rights Center, Miranda claimed the attack left him with a "permanent debilitating injury."
According to Miranda, Kell's cell door was opened while Miranda was in the common area. Kell allegedly attacked Miranda, saying derogatory things about Islam. Miranda says Kell put him in a choke hold and continued to beat him while he was unconscious. Miranda said guards stood by and let the attack happen.
Kell was found not guilty in an internal prison disciplinary hearing, according to the Utah Department of Corrections.
The state Supreme Court ruled that to sue in such cases, plaintiffs would have to prove they had suffered a flagrant violation of their constitutional rights, establish that existing remedies to their damages do not exist under common law, and show that a court's ruling prohibiting future behavior would be inadequate to protect their rights.
Stewart found Miranda's case met those requirements, and the judge ruled he could continue with his civil complaint.
Kell, a known white supremacist, was convicted and sentenced to die for a 1996 fatal stabbing of fellow inmate Lonnie Blackmon, who was black. Miranda is also black. Investigators determined Kell stabbed Blackmon 67 times while they were both inmates at the state prison in Gunnison.
At the time, prison spokesman Jack Ford said the stabbing was believed to have been racially motivated.
Miranda filed his lawsuit against the state of Utah in December 2003. According to the lawsuit, Miranda claimed that because of his race and religious beliefs, he was "targeted by other inmates and by correctional officers who were angered by the terrorist actions and tried to incite violence against him."
Miranda was required to exhaust all administrative remedies available to him, which included filing a complaint with the prison and the state, and receiving court approval to continue with his lawsuit. Stewart's ruling means Miranda can now move ahead with his case.
He claims that had "officials done their job and heeded his warning that other inmates wanted to kill him," the situation could have been avoided.
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Information from: Deseret Morning News, http://www.deseretnews.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
