Richman, Jack Date of Death: November 18, 1997 …

In 1997, Jack Richman was in an Illinois state court with his mother, who was fighting a traffic ticket. Richman was 34 years old; 6 feet, 2 inches; and weighed 489 pounds. At 4 p.m., after the judge continued the case to the next day, the Richmans protested, and Richman was found in contempt of court. When Richman refused to leave the courtroom peaceably, the judge raised his sentence for contempt in stages until it ultimately totaled 120 days. When the two deputies tried to remove Richman forcibly, he clung to the podium and they could not dislodge him. Additional deputies entered the courtroom and tried to seize Richman. The deputies eventually managed to drag him from the podium to the floor, where he lay prone, his face down, but continuing to struggle with the deputies, who ultimately handcuffed him. Richman died in the courtroom of “restraint hypoxia,” from having officers sitting on his back while trying to restrain him. On Richman’s behalf, his mother sued 18 deputy sheriffs for excessive force in federal court, and in an earlier appeal, the Seventh Circuit held that the deputies were not entitled to absolute immunity, even though they were carrying out the judge’s order to remove Richman from the courtroom. 270 F.3d 430 (7th Cir. 2001).