Title: Stanley Frank Boyd v. Larry Norris, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction et al.

State: arkansas

Issuer: Arkansas Supreme Court

Document:

ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION PER CURIAM OCTOBER 5, 2000 STANLEY FRANK BOYD Appellant v. LARRY NORRIS, DIRECTOR, ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION, et al Respondent 00-536 PRO SE MOTION TO PROCEED IN FORMA PAUPERIS [CIRCUIT COURT OF IZARD COUNTY, NO. E-98-4] MOTION GRANTED On January 8, 1998, Stanley Frank Boyd, an inmate of the Arkansas Department of Correction, brought a civil complaint against Larry Norris, Director of the Arkansas Department of Correction, ten other persons, and one corporation, alleging that his civil rights had been violated. The allegation arose out of an episode wherein another prison inmate attacked and injured Boyd and Boyd subsequently received medical care for his injuries. A hearing was held on the complaint, and on October 22, 1999, the trial court dismissed the complaint as to all defendants except for one individual. Boyd filed a notice of appeal from the October 22, 1999, order and attempted to lodge the record in this court without paying a filing fee. When he was notified that he must remit a filing fee to the clerk to lodge an appeal in a civil matter, he filed the instant motion asking this court to waive the filing fee so that the record may be lodged and a briefing schedule set. While there is no inherent right to judicial process, the State may not withhold thisprocess when to do so would deprive a person of a fundamental constitutional right. Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371 (1971). The granting of an appellant's motion to proceed in forma pauperis in a civil appeal is not a finding that the appellant has established deprivation of a fundamental constitutional right by any defendant, only that he has implicated a fundamental right. As there is an established constitutional right under the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment for a prison inmate to be reasonably protected from attacks by other prisoners, Bailey v. Wood, 909 F.2d 1197, 1199 (8th Cir. 1990), and there are other rights pertaining to medical care for prisoners that may have been implicated in this proceeding, we will permit appellant to proceed in forma pauperis in this appeal so that the issues raised below can be fully addressed. Our clerk is directed to lodge the record and set a briefing schedule. Motion granted.