Peabody & Arnold attorneys Meghan Cooper and Allen David secured a jury verdict in favor of their client, an inmate incarcerated by the Massachusetts Department of Correction, in a pro bono case they tried recently in federal court. They succeeded in proving that the defendants, two married Correction Officers, violated their client’s right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment by inciting and soliciting white supremacist inmates to assault him multiple times.  The defendants’ motivation for soliciting the assaults was to retaliate against the client because he had filed grievances against the defendants, and they feared that the grievance would adversely affect the promotion of one of the defendants. After hearing three days of evidence from inmates and other Correction Officers, the jury awarded the client both compensatory and punitive damages.