Opinion ID: 712098
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: District Court's Instructions Regarding Force.

Text: 11 Appellants argue that the district court erred in failing to give their requested instruction that no force can be used on a citizen who has been arrested and restrained. The district court orally instructed the jury on the amount of force that officers could use as follows: 12 The defendants have the lawful authority and indeed the lawful duty under state law to use physical force as may have been reasonably necessary to accomplish an arrest and to protect themselves from physical harm at the hands of any person, including, of course, a plaintiff. 13 If you find from a preponderance of the evidence either that a defendant knowingly used greater force than he believed was reasonably necessary in order to accomplish a lawful purpose or knowingly used more force than would have appeared to a reasonable person in like circumstances to be necessary in order to accomplish a lawful purpose, then you may find that a defendant acted unlawfully contrary to state law and did, without due process of law, deprive a plaintiff of liberty secured and protected by the constitution of the United States.... [A police officer] may use reasonable force to make an arrest or to defend himself.... 14 The issue in this case deals with reasonable force. The right to make an arrest or an investigatory stop necessarily carries with it the right to use some degree of physical coercion or threat to effect it. The reasonableness inquiry in an excessive force case is an objective one. The question is whether the officers' actions are objectively reasonable in light of the facts and the circumstances confronting them without regard to their underlying intent or motivation. Appellants' requested instruction was: 15 ... it is a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution for an officer, acting under color of law, to use physical force on a citizen who has been arrested and restrained. 16 The district court refused to give the requested instruction. 17 Appellate courts do not review jury instructions for technical error. United States v. Cobb, 905 F.2d 784, 788 (4th Cir.1990), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 1049, 111 S.Ct. 758, 112 L.Ed.2d 778 (1991). Appellate courts review the jury charge as a whole to determine whether it fairly and adequately submits the issues and the law to the jury. United States v. Carr, 5 F.3d 986, 992 (6th Cir.1993). 18 A refusal to give a requested jury instruction is reversible error only if three conditions are satisfied. First, the omitted instruction must be a correct statement of the law. Second, the instruction must not be substantially covered by other delivered charges. Third, the failure to give the instruction must impair the requesting party's theory of the case. Carr, 5 F.3d at 992. 19 Appellants' requested instruction essentially is a correct statement of the law, although it does not go far enough. Appellants' requested instruction also should have contained a statement that the arrestee must be restrained and must be completely under the control of the police for the no force rule to apply. This court has held that beating and kicking restrained suspects who are in the control of the police is plainly excessive force. Lewis v. Downs, 774 F.2d 711, 714 (6th Cir.1985). Accord, McDowell v. Rogers, 863 F.2d 1302, 1307 (6th Cir.1988) (need for force is nonexistent when suspect handcuffed and not trying to resist or escape); Feemster v. Dehntjer, 661 F.2d 87, 89 (8th Cir.1981) ([t]here is no occasion for the use of any force against a prisoner who quietly submits.... No matter how difficult it is to apprehend a prisoner, the law does not permit officers to beat him once he is securely in custody.). 20 The charge actually given to the jury in this case did not substantially cover the post-restraint Fourth Amendment law that was partially contained in appellants' requested instruction, because the charge as given could have allowed the jury to believe that some force could be used on a restrained suspect in police control as long as the force was not excessive. The failure to give a post-restraint instruction in this case did impair the appellants' theory of the case by not informing the jury that there is no justification for force when the suspect is securely in custody and not attempting resistance or escape. Therefore, the jury should have been instructed that it is unreasonable and thus a violation of the Fourth Amendment for a police officer, acting under color of law, to use physical force on a citizen who has been arrested and restrained, who is securely under the control of the police, and who is not attempting to escape. See Feemster, 661 F.2d at 89. 21 The district court should have given this suggested Fourth Amendment post-restraint instruction in addition to the instruction it actually gave to the jury. In Feemster v. Dehntjer, 661 F.2d 87, 89 (8th Cir.1981), the Eighth Circuit held that a reasonable force instruction similar to the district court's should not have been given at all in a case where the only claim actually maintained at trial was a claim that the plaintiff was beaten and denied medical care after he surrendered to police. However, in Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989), the Supreme Court held that all claims of excessive force in arrests, investigatory stops, and other seizures before pretrial detention should be considered under the objective reasonableness standard developed in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. The district court's instruction was taken directly from the Graham case and was required by the Graham decision insofar as there was testimony that some of the injuries occurred during the process of arrest. However, the suggested Fourth Amendment post-restraint instruction should have been given as an additional instruction to ensure that the jury was not misled as to the amount of force that could be used after the suspects were restrained and securely under the control of the police. See Doe v. Sullivan County, Tennessee, 956 F.2d 545, 555 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 864, 113 S.Ct. 187, 121 L.Ed.2d 131 (1992) (jury verdict should be set aside when instructions, viewed as a whole, were confusing, misleading, and prejudicial.). 22 Judge Ryan argues that this suggested Fourth Amendment post-restraint instruction is unconstitutional and eliminates the reasonableness analysis required by Graham. To the contrary, it does not depart from Graham. It accurately applies Graham to the situation in this case, which involves both pre-arrest and post-restraint conduct. This instruction merely explains to the jury that certain conduct is unreasonable, and therefore violative of the Fourth Amendment, after arrest and full restraint. This instruction does not prevent the jury from weighing the circumstances in determining whether the arrest is complete, whether the arrestee is securely under the control of the police, and whether the arrestee is attempting to escape. This instruction merely provides the jury with the proper legal standards to guide its factual determinations. Such an instruction is in no way unconstitutional, and in fact is fully consistent with the law of the Supreme Court and with the law of this circuit as stated in Lewis and McDowell. Although Lewis and McDowell both predate Graham, their holdings that no force may be used on fully restrained arrestees are fully consistent with Graham and have not been disavowed in any way by this court. It is true that Lewis was decided under a substantive due process standard that the Supreme Court later disavowed in Graham. Lewis, 774 F.2d at 713-14. Nevertheless, the Lewis holding that no force may be used on a fully restrained arrestee survives Graham, as demonstrated by McDowell, which reached the same result under the Fourth Amendment analysis that was subsequently approved in Graham. McDowell, 863 F.2d at 1306. 23 Judge Ryan also complains that this instruction is patently result-oriented and disingenuous because it creates a different Fourth Amendment standard applicable to the use of force in a post-arrest situation than is applicable to pre-arrest conduct. Nothing could be farther from reality. As explained above, this instruction is not a different standard but merely an application of the reasonableness standard in the post-arrest context, rather than in the pre-arrest context of Graham. This instruction informs the jury that is unreasonable to use force in this different context, where the defendant is securely under police control, and not attempting to flee or fight. 24 Finally, criticism for describing the circumstances in which the use of force is unreasonable, and statements that this approach is doomed to failure and that it cannot succeed in covering all of the circumstances that should be considered in determining reasonableness, are unduly pessimistic. Moreover, no additional circumstances, other than arrest, restraint, police control, and escape, that may be relevant to that determination, are suggested by the separate opinion that follows. 25 It is quite likely that the objective reasonableness instruction, given here without the additional Fourth Amendment post-restraint instruction, did mislead and confuse the jury and result in prejudice to the appellants. A note, signed by six of the eight jurors, was sent to the district judge, stating: 26