No. 25-6447

Torrence Belcher v. Joshua Wallen, et al.

Lower Court: Seventh Circuit
Docketed: 2025-12-30
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: cruel-unusual-punishment deliberate-indifference eighth-amendment inmate-rights physical-injury prison-safety
Latest Conference: 2026-02-20
Question Presented (from Petition)

1. How isn't an official being responsible for an inmate 's death not a basis for suing them??
2. If it is possible to hypothesize a set of facts consistent with the complaint then why
wouldn 't relief to the plaintiff be entitled??
3. So a failure to protect claim may sound against a "high level " official if that "high level "
official (A) demonstrated deliberate indifference towards a prisoners safety needs (B)
showing that the inmate was incarcerated under condition posing a substantial risk of
serious harm and (C) that that "high level " prison official had subjective knowledge of
the risk of harm, which they personally disregarded?
4. What if non-official customs resulted in the death of an inmate?? Or the non-enforcing of
certain policies??
5. Would or could that be consider a 14th amendment violation? Pertaining to question
four A.
6. A correctional officer assigned to check on our well-being never walked the range. So
what if I don't know who was working the range the day that young man killed
himself???
7. What if an injury occurred as a result of a denied grievance?? The un-insuring of
adequate remedy??
8. If I make a complaint to a higher authority that a hole is around the comer and they tell
me to shut the hell up, then a man walks around the comer and falls in that hole and dies,
how isn't that higher authority liable when he was made aware ??
9. What does indigent mean to failing to pay a filling fee without the means to do so?
10. Does the constitution and its amendments only apply to those poverty stricken?
11. Are the wealthy above the law??
12. How did Joshua Wallen somehow (only) checked the wrong side??
13. How isn't a suicide that went unchecked because of neglect not consider a physical
injury??
14. Does 42 U.S.C §1997 (e)e specify- explicitly if the physical injury has to occur to me.
personally??
15. How isn't a death that occurred as a result of not enforcing the policy not consider a
physical injury??
16. How isn't leaving a depressed person unattended too for more than an hour not seen as a
physical injury on some level??
17. Is there occasion to consider the meaning of the statutory term "Physical injury " or
whether what, I, the plaintiff Belcher, was alleging could fit into it??
18. How isn't the plaintiff Belcher personally involved when he complained about the
neglect that killed a young man?
19. Does paraphrase and construe have the same meaning?
20. How can the courts reword their own explanation when it pertains to the meanings of
plainly stated statutes or pleadings??
21. How is it proper or ethical to construe anything when it comes to court proceedings??
22. Doesn 't construe mean to guess or assume without clarity??

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether a prison official's deliberate indifference to an inmate's safety constitutes a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment

Docket Entries

2026-02-23
Petition DENIED.
2026-01-22
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/20/2026.
2026-01-12
Waiver of right of respondent Joshua Wallen, et al. to respond filed.
2025-10-15
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due January 29, 2026)

Attorneys

Joshua Wallen, et al.
James Allen BartaOffice of the Indiana Attorney General, Respondent
Torrence Belcher
Torrence Belcher — Petitioner