The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of former Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill on charges he violated the civil rights of jail detainees by strapping them into restraint chairs for hours.
The three-judge panel on Monday rejected an appeal by Hill’s lawyers for a new trial because the ex-lawman, in part, should have been warned that his use of the restraint chairs was illegal and could be considered excessive force.
Hill was convicted by a federal jury in October 2022 of strapping six detainees in the chair for four hours and longer as a form of punishment. The devices can only lawfully be used in instances when an inmate poses a risk of harm to themselves or others.
He was sentenced to an 18-month prison term, but served only 10 months at FCI Forrest City in Arkansas before being released in March to community confinement in Georgia. He fulfilled his sentence in early April, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and is on probation for the next six years.
Hill is barred from being a law enforcement officer.
The appeals court judges, saying that no man is above the law — including sheriffs — disagreed with the arguments Hill’s attorneys made before them April 16 in their quest for a new trial.
In addition to noting that Hill violated his own policy of using the chairs only when a detainee poses a risk, the court rejected allegations that U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor Ross may have forced a verdict by singling out for questioning a juror who clashed with his fellow jurors.
“Hill had fair warning that his conduct was unconstitutional — that is, that he could not use gratuitous force against a compliant, nonresistant detainee,” the court said in its opinion. “Second, sufficient evidence supported the jury’s conclusion that Hill’s conduct had no legitimate nonpunitive purpose, was willful, and caused the detainees’ injuries.”
“Third, the district court did not coerce the jury verdict but properly exercised its discretion in investigating and responding to alleged juror misconduct,” the judges wrote in their decision.
The news comes as Hill on Tuesday announced on Facebook that he is writing a book about his experiences as sheriff and a convicted felon.
“While serving his prison sentence, Hill wrote a book going into every detail of his 14 years as the Sheriff of Clayton County, and the inside of what happened while he was imprisoned,” the Facebook post said. “The book is projected to be released in the heat of this summer. Was Sheriff Hill a vigilante? Read it, and you be the judge!”
