Thurston McAfee v. J. Rivero

MEMORANDUM

Thurston B. McAfee, a California state prisoner, appeals pro se from the district court’s summary judgment in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging deliberate indifference to safety and due process violations. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review de novo. Gibson v. County of Washoe, Nev., 290 F.3d 1175, 1180 (9th Cir.2002). We affirm.

The district court properly granted summary judgment on McAfee’s Eighth Amendment claim because McAfee failed to raise a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether defendant Hill acted with deliberate indifference to McAfee’s safety before the riot erupted in the dining hall, or as to whether Hill acted “maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm” after he recognized that tensions were building and called for reinforcements. Johnson v. Lewis, 217 F.3d 726, 733-34 (9th Cir.2000) (the state-of-mind requirement for an Eighth Amendment claim “varies with the circumstances of the claim”); see also Wilson v. Seiter, 501 U.S. 294, 297-98 , 111 S.Ct. 2321 , 115 L.Ed.2d 271 (1991) (inmate must establish that prison officials “possessed a sufficiently culpable state of mind” to implicate the Eighth…