
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 7, 1994                   TAG: 9406070096
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

HIGH COURT REVIVES SUIT BY TRANSSEXUAL

The Supreme Court revived a lawsuit Monday by a transsexual inmate allegedly raped in prison, but said prison officials can be forced to pay damages for such attacks only if they knowingly ignored a major risk of harm.

Being violently assaulted in prison is not part of an inmate's sentence, the court said. However, the justices added that prison officials who act reasonably cannot be held liable for inmates' attacks on one another.

``A prison official cannot be held liable ... for denying an inmate humane conditions of confinement unless the official knows of and disregards an excessive risk to inmate health or safety,'' Justice David Souter wrote for the court. That does not mean prison officials can ignore obvious dangers to inmates, Souter wrote.

At issue was the Constitution's Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment.

The justices unanimously revived a lawsuit by transsexual inmate Dee Farmer, who sued prison officials over an alleged 1989 rape in a federal prison in Indiana.

Farmer has the appearance and demeanor of a woman, enhanced by silicone breast implants and female hormones. But Farmer has male sex organs and is serving a 20-year sentence for credit card fraud in a federal prison for men.

Farmer's lawsuit said prison officials violated Farmer's constitutional right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment by ignoring the risk that a feminine-appearing inmate would be raped by fellow prisoners.

Farmer, who later was transferred to a federal prison in Butner, N.C., has been diagnosed as carrying the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.

by CNB