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Rural Virginia Jury Refuses to Hold Guards Liable 
for State Prisoner’s Death

Loaded on June 1, 2025 published in Prison Legal News June, 2025, page 12
Filed under: Failure to Protect (General), Guard Brutality/Beatings, Failure to Protect (Wrongful Death), Failure to Treat (Mental Illness). Location: Virginia.

On April 10, 2025, a jury in tiny Abingdon, Virginia (pop. 8,295) refused to assign liability to a half-dozen state Department of Corrections (DOC) employees accused in the death of mentally ill prisoner Charles Givens, 52, at Marion Correctional Treatment Center.

As PLN reported, five guards and the former warden …

 

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  1. Washington’s Continuing Competency Crisis Strains Jails
  2. Rejected by Conviction Integrity Unit, 
27 New York Prisoners Exonerated Anyway
  3. From the Editor, by Paul Wright
  4. $2.4 Million Settlement Reached After Elderly Pretrial Detainee Strangled by Cellmate in San Antonio Jail, by David Reutter
  5. Oklahoma Supreme Court Kills One Jail Death Suit, 
Threatening Settlement of Another
  6. Arkansas DOC Settles Retaliation Claim by Prisoner 
Who Also Won Back Confiscated COVID-19 Stimulus
  7. Kansas Supreme Court Revives Prisoner’s Challenge 
to Loss of Parental Rights, by Matthew Clarke
  8. Rural Virginia Jury Refuses to Hold Guards Liable 
for State Prisoner’s Death
  9. French Prisons Targeted 
in Coordinated Attack
  10. Top Rikers Island Jailers Logged Overtime 
Equal to 14-Hour Days With No Days Off
  11. Mississippi DOC Issues Almost $300 Million 
in No-Bid Contracts to VitalCore Health
  12. Fifth Circuit Refuses to Stop Court-Ordered Construction 
of Mental Health Facility at New Orleans Jail, by Boris Bastidas
  13. Ninth Circuit Revives Complaint Over Sloppy Cell Checks 
Before Psychotic Detainee’s Death at L.A. Jail, by Douglas Ankney
  14. $875,000 Award for Illinois Prisoner’s Delay 
in Getting Hernia Surgery, by David M. Reutter
  15. Salvadoran President’s Dark Secret Allegedly Behind Deal 
to Hold Deported Migrants in “Mega” Prison
  16. California Appellate Court: Custody Credits Must be Applied 
to Concurrent Terms in Multiple Open Cases, by David M. Reutter
  17. Over $1.1 Million Recovered for Rikers Island Janitors
  18. Former Centurion Owner Accused of Helping Florida Governor Kill Legalized Weed
  19. Four Arizona Prisoners Dead After Being Celled 
with Leader of 2004 Standoff
  20. $100,000 Settlement Reached For Tennessee Detainee 
Baptized to Get Out of Traffic Ticket, by Boris Bastidas
  21. Sixth Circuit Limits Deliberate Indifference Standard 
in Kentucky Jail Medical Care Challenge, by David M. Reutter
  22. Italy Begins Conjugal Visits 
in Prison “Sex Rooms”
  23. Auburn University’s Prison Education Program ‘Indefinitely Suspended’, by Charlotte West
  24. New Mexico Watchdog Group Sues for Video Allegedly 
Showing Jailers Killing Detainee, by David M. Reutter
  25. Gay Tennessee Prisoner Refuses to Out Himself 
in PREA Classification Hearings
  26. $500,000 for Colorado Detainee Dropped 
On His Face by Jailers, by Douglas Ankney
  27. Three New York Guards Plead Guilty to Beating Black Prisoner 
in “George Floyd Challenge”
  28. Ninth Circuit Reinstates Religious Exercise Claim from Arizona “Christian-Israelite” Prisoner Denied Passover Meal, by Michael Thompson
  29. Watchdogs Fault Nebraska Prisons 
for Suicide Response, Overpaid Staff, by Boris Bastidas
  30. Smart Communications Files for Bankruptcy Protection
  31. 11th Alabama Sheriff’s Employee Pleads Guilty in Jail Detainee’s Death, Admits Stomping Him in Genitals
  32. Second South Carolina Prisoner 
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  33. Tenth Circuit Upholds Nearly $8.8 Million Judgment 
for Utah Jail Death, by Douglas Ankney
  34. Seven TDCJ Prison Guards Arrested 
in Alleged Smuggling Ring
  35. Fifth Circuit Reinstates Baha’i Texas Prisoner’s Dietary Claim, by Matthew Clarke
  36. $62,500 For Idaho Prisoner Raped by Guard 
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  37. Eighth Circuit Excuses Missouri Prisoner’s Failure 
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  38. GTL/ViaPath Ordered to Pay $3 Million for Violations 
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  39. Former Wisconsin Warden Gets No Cell Time, $500 Fine After Prisoner Deaths
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  41. $1.3 Million for Massachusetts Prisoner 
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  42. California Enacts Counterproductive, 
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  43. Government Quasi-Agency Attempts to Infiltrate Criminal Justice Nonprofit
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  46. $13 Million Awarded to Exonerated Massachusetts Prisoner 
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  47. New York Lowers Minimum Age 
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  48. $5.6 Million Settlement for California Prisoner’s Wife 
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  49. Almost $4.4 Million for Illinois Prisoner’s Failure to Protect Claim, by David Reutter
  50. Death Row Prisoners Challenge New Tennessee 
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  51. Eighth Circuit Lets Missouri Guard Skate For Placing Avowed Enemies In Same Cell, Resulting In Assault, by Anthony Accurso
  52. Georgia Moves to Shield Intellectually Disabled Prisoners 
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  53. Long-Running Consent Decree Again Extended 
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  54. $50,000 for Excessive Force Claim by Maryland Prisoner 
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  55. Retired California Prison Guard Killed in Colorado Jail
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  63. Former Jail Guard Accused of Having Sex with Detainee 
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  64. $2.8 Million Settlement in National NUMI 
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  70. News in Brief
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