by Christopher Zoukis
In what is typically a politically risky move, six state governors recently granted pardons and commutations to hundreds of current and former prisoners. In California, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Arkansas and Vermont, more than 500 pardons were granted along with another 20 commutations or grants of clemency. ...
by Christopher Zoukis
In December 19, 2016, the First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the convictions of several former public officials in Massachusetts for their roles in a hiring scheme at the Office of the Commissioner of Probation (OCP).
The defendants, Elizabeth V. Tavares, John J. O’Brien and William H. ...
By Christopher Zoukis
The estate of a woman who died while detoxing in a Kalamazoo, Michigan county jail settled a wrongful death claim for $1.75 million on November 15, 2013.
Andrea Suzanne Armstead, 21, was booked into the Kalamazoo County Jail October 30, 2011 on an outstanding misdemeanor warrant. Over ...
by Christopher Zoukis
A Massachusetts state prisoner who worked in a prison industry workshop was awarded $816,000 in compensation for an injury sustained while working with a circular saw. The August 2, 2013 award would have been chopped down by 35 percent due to comparative negligence, but it was ultimately ...
By Christopher Zoukis
A jury awarded $45,000 in damages against four Georgia state prison Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) members on June 12, 2013.
Ammon Ra Sumrall was imprisoned at the Autry State Prison October 27, 2009. During the intake and orientation process, Sumrall claimed that four CERT members became ...
by Christopher Zoukis
A federal jury awarded the estate of a man who died in an Oklahoma jail $175,000 for violation of the deceased's constitutional rights.
Charles Holdstock, a 63-year-old attorney, was charged with child molestation in 2006. He spent three years in the Oklahoma County Jail awaiting trial. He ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to rule on the issue of jail “booking fees” – fees charged when arrestees are jailed, which are not always returned upon their release.
The case involved a $25 fee charged to everyone arrested in Ramsey County, Minnesota. One person who ...
by Christopher Zoukis
The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has reversed a district court’s ruling that a former prisoner’s Eighth Amendment claim of cruel and unusual punishment could not go forward. The appellate court did, however, uphold the dismissal of a First Amendment claim.
Seyon R. Haywood accused ...
by Christopher Zoukis
Barack Obama made history by becoming the first president to contribute to legal scholarship by having an article published in a law journal while in office. The article, titled “The President’s Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform,” appeared in the January 2017 issue of the prestigious Harvard ...
by Christopher Zoukis
Kalief Browder was a 16-year-old arrested in New York City in 2012 on charges of stealing a backpack. The charges were later dismissed, but not before he sat in jail on Rikers Island for three years – part of which was spent in solitary confinement – because ...
