Elmer PRATT, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. James K. ROWLAND; James Gomez, Director; Daniel Vasquez; Robert Borg, Et Al., Defendants-Appellants

Various officials of the California Department of Corrections (“DOC”) appeal the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction against them. The district court found that Pratt, a state prisoner, had demonstrated a likelihood of success on his claim that prison officials had transferred him from one facility to another and had placed him in a double cell in retaliation for Pratt’s exercise of protected First Amendment rights. We have jurisdiction over this interlocutory appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (a)(1). Because we find that the district court’s decision was based upon clearly erroneous findings of fact, we reverse.

BACKGROUND

Elmer “Gerónimo” Pratt is serving a life sentence in California state prisons following his 1972 conviction for first degree murder. Pratt, who was a leader of the Southern California Black Panther Party, has maintained since his arrest that he was framed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and is innocent of the crime of which he was convicted. He and his supporters have conducted a long and, at times, highly visible publicity campaign in an effort to secure a new trial and his eventual release from custody.

In addition,…