The U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider a legal appeal from a Texas inmate who spent 27 years in solitary confinement following his conviction for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon.
Lawyers representing 54-year-old Dennis Hope appealed a lower court ruling that his multi-decade stint in solitary confinement did not violate the U.S. Constitution’s 8th Amendment ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.”
In addition to Hope’s aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon conviction and two subsequent prison break attempts, court documents show he had federal convictions for illegal possession of firearms, robbery, carjacking, and use of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence.
Court documents detailed Hope’s long-term incarceration. Hope spent between 22 and 24 hours per day in a 6-foot by 9-foot cell, a space described in the court documents as “no larger than a parking space.”
He was held in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Polunsky Unit, a maximum security facility in Livingston that houses the state’s death row.
Hope was barred from human interactions, with an exception for prison staff. Hope also claimed he suffered from hallucinations, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. He claimed that he was denied treatment for these afflictions by prison staff.
Hope alleged that prison staff abuse prisoners, sometimes beating prisoners who disrespect staff to “teach them a lesson about respect.”
Hope also said that Texas Security Officials decided he was no longer an escape risk in 2005 but he has remained in solitary confinement despite the officials’ determination.
The explosive allegations failed to fully convince the New Orleans-based U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court denied Hope’s appeal in 2021, setting the stage for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
One week after Hope’s lawyers filed the appeal to the Supreme Court in early 2022, Texas prison officials started the process of reintegrating Hope into the general prison population. Prison officials sought to negotiate a settlement with Hope’s legal defense team, but the two sides failed to reach an agreement.
After the settlement failure, Hope’s lawyers continued to pursue the appeal to the Supreme Court. Texas prison officials asked the Supreme Court to consider the case moot because Hope is no longer in solitary confinement.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court denied Hope’s petition, upholding the 5th Circuit’s decision that Hope’s confinement did not rise to the standard of “cruel and unusual punishment.”
