Resource: Hayden v. Keller

Hayden filed a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in federal court asserting a violation of the Eighth Amendment. Hayden was serving a sentence of natural life for various non-homicide offenses. He became eligible for parole after serving twenty years, and was considered for parole every year thereafter under the normal adult offender parole provisions. At the time he filed suit in federal court, he was forty-eight years old and had been in custody since 1983. He had been denied parole each year.