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Michelle McDonald-Witherspoon, Individually and as Administratrix of the Estate of Kenyada Jones v. Amber Browne, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, No. 21-1019 · judgment December 21, 2021

Certiorari denied · October 3, 2022
Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

  1. Whether a probation officer with no medical or psychiatric training who is in charge of a mentally disabled (schizophrenic) person (who is out of jail on probation and who is waiting for his mother to arrive to take him for psychiatric treatment), and has that person arrested and returned to prison for the sole purpose of receiving psychiatric treatment in prison (thus preventing him from receiving treatment at a psychiatric hospital) based solely on the fact that he is mentally disabled (whereby he would not have been arrested and returned to jail if he were not mentally disabled), violates the disabled person’s rights under the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution giving rise to a civil claim under 42 USC §1983 when the disabled person dies in prison a few days later from a medication overdose due to the failure to receive competent mental health treatment at the prison (where he was placed in general population and given a month’s supply of medication to keep on his person in accordance with the prison’s policy), where it was foreseeable that the disabled person would not receive the treatment he needed in prison thus placing him in serious risk of harm.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Stephen H. Cristal
Cristal Law Firm LLC

For respondent
Nicole Aileen Feigenbaum
Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Oct 03 2022
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Aug 31 2022
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/28/2022.
  3. Aug 31 2022
    Waiver of right of respondents Philadelphia Adult Parole and Probation Department (PAPPD) to respond filed.
    Main Document
  4. Aug 25 2022
    Waiver of right of respondents Amber Browne, et al. to respond filed.
    Main Document
  5. Aug 24 2022
    Waiver of Amber Browne, et al. of right to respond not accepted for filing. (August 25, 2022)
  6. Apr 26 2022
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due September 14, 2022)
    PetitionAppendixCertificate of Word CountProof of Service