The United States Supreme Court will focus on the case of Damon Landor. The highest American judicial instance agreed on Monday, June 23 to examine the case of this Rastafari whose hair was cut by detention in a Louisian prison, inform the New York Times or CNN. The Supreme Court will listen to the allegations during its next session that begins in October and will end in June 2026.
Damon Landor asks to be able to prosecute the prison guards individually, which could allow him to obtain damage for violation of his religious rights.
Hair that reaches the knees
Born in Jamaica in the 1930s, Rastafarism is a religious and cultural movement that has been popularized worldwide by the reggae Bob Marley star. For his followers, the dreadlocks are of a spiritual approach.
Damon Landor has been pushing his hair for two decades and knelt when he was imprisoned in 2020 in Louisiana for drug possession. He only had three weeks left to serve in a prayer of five months in total when his hair was cut.
According to a complaint filed by Damon Landor, the prisoner had anticipated this case since he retained with him a copy of a judicial decision dating from 2017. This decision stipulated that imprisoned Rastafaris should be authorized to maintain their tremors, and this by virtue of a federal law of 2000 guaranteeing the religious freedom of prisoners.
“I had the impression of being raped”
He would have submitted this document to a goalkeeper from Cottonport prison in Louisiana. I would have thrown it in the trash. Damon Landor says he was handcuffed to a chair and sustained on the ground before his head was shaving.
“When I adhered to me and I shaved, I felt that I was raped,” he said in a statement published last year.
“The guards got completely. They knew it was better not to cut my hair, but they did it anyway.”
An appeal court denounced the “unbearable” treatment, but said he could not continue with public officials for any damage.
The Federal Law does not allow “damage against an individually processed official,” said Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill. But the latter acknowledged in a note in the Supreme Court that the treatment that had been inflicted to Damon Landor in prison was “contrary to freedom of religion.”
According to the New York Times, Damon Landor’s case is far from isolated. At least five other Rastafaris brought prosecution in Louisiana because their dreadlocks had been shaved by prison agents.
Source: BFM TV
