Opinion ID: 795014
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Arkansas Civil Rights Act of 1993

Text: 40 At trial, the jury found that Porter and McAllister were not deliberately indifferent to Grayson's constitutional rights. While the instructions 2 are consistent with federal Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment protections for pre-trial detainees, see Crow, 403 F.3d at 601, the Arkansas Constitution may require a different standard of care. Though we have previously determined that deliberate indifference applies under article II, section 9 of the Arkansas Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment and thus essentially mirrors the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution, Hufford v. Ross, No. 98-3772, slip op. at 3 (8th Cir. May 26, 1999) (per curiam) (unpublished), we decline to extend the deliberate indifference standard to all claims brought by pre-trial detainees and hereby direct the Clerk of Court to certify the following question to the Supreme Court of Arkansas: Does the conscious indifference standard announced in Shepherd v. Washington County, 331 Ark. 480, 962 S.W.2d 779 (Ark.1998), afford greater protection to pre-trial detainees than the federal deliberate indifference standard?