CBS News: 'Stephen Slevin- Awarded $15.5 Million Settlement After Being Held in Solitary Confinement For Two Years in NM Jail'

Source:CBS News- "Stephen Slevin at the time of his arrest for drunken driving in August 2005 (left) and shortly after being released from solitary confinement in May 2007." From CBS News.

"A man who was arrested for drunken driving and then held in solitary confinement for two years without trial was awarded $15.5 million in one of the largest federal civil rights settlements in history, a southern New Mexico county announced Tuesday.

The settlement stems from mediation ordered by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Dona Ana County was appealing a lower court decision that upheld a $22 million judgment that was awarded last year to former county inmate Stephen Slevin."

From CBS News 

I don't know all the details of this case, but just from the outside at least, what happened to Stephen Slevin in New Mexico, looks like cruel and unusual punishment. Perhaps a credit to the man's character that he didn't go completely crazy and try to kill himself, because not only was he completely isolated not just from the outside world, but completely isolated from the rest of the jail and not even allowed to shave or perhaps bathe while he was in solitary confinement. As the jury in this lawsuit declared and awarded Mr. Slevin was his apparent cruel and unusual punishment.