Court Awards $1.3 Million to Victims of Attica Assault

A New York court awarded almost $1.3 million Wednesday to inmates and the survivors of inmates who were shot during the bloody state police assault that ended the 1971 uprising at Attica state prison.

The awards ordered by the state Court of Claims range from $35,000 to $475,000 and include the first damages given to survivors of inmates involved in the Attica uprising.

A lawyer for two inmates’ widows said that with interest accrued over 18 years, required under the state’s wrongful death law, the damages will exceed $2 million.

In separate decisions relating to seven inmates, Judge Donald Corbett said the convicts “neither participated in the uprising nor resisted in the retaking” of the prison by state police.

Corbett said the state was liable for damages for injuries “resulting from the intentional use of excessive force.”

The state will appeal, said James Flateau, spokesman for state Criminal Justice Director John Poklemba.

Three of the seven inmates were killed in the 10 minutes of police gunfire on rioting prison inmates. Two others have since died of unrelated causes and two are still alive.

More than 1,200 inmates took control of the maximum-security prison near Buffalo for four days, holding guards and civilians hostage.

Police used gunfire and gas to retake the prison on Sept. 13, 1971, killing 39 inmates and employees and injuring 80 inmates and employees. One guard and three inmates were killed during the uprising.

The awards are based on the inmates’ pain and suffering, their families’ loss of money based on their future employment prospects and disfigurement.

“There is no magical or precise mathematical formula for computing damages in this type of case, for the award must be based upon intangible . . . losses,” Judge Corbett said in one of the decisions.

Corbett awarded the largest amount--$475,000--to Brenda West, widow of Willie West Jr. He was 26 and the father of an 11-month-old son when he died after being shot several times.

Corbett said West could have been released in 1981 and had a promising career as a light operator for Columbia Pictures in California ahead of him.