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Articles by Chuck Sharman

Arizona Resumes Executions

by Eike Blohm, MD and Chuck Sharman

After Arizona resumed executions last year, following an eight-year hiatus, it quickly murdered three murderers on its death row.

On May 11, 2022, a lethal injection of pentobarbital was given to Clarence Dixon, 66, a mentally ill Native American, by then blind. Blaming ...

Arizona Jail Racks Up Four Deaths And Two Escapes In Less Than Two Months

by Chuck Sharman

After two detainees died within a week at Arizona’s Pima County Jail — and just before two more committed suicide — two other detainees managed to walk out, all within two months.

One man escaped, and the other was released by a confused guard. On November 21, ...

San Diego County Pays $3.488 Million After Jail Detainee Dies in Cell Extraction

by Chuck Sharman

In October 2022, PLN successfully concluded a months-long effort to obtain a copy of an agreement by San Diego County to pay nearly $3.5 million to settle its part of a lawsuit filed by the family of Paul Silva, a mentally ill detainee who died after a ...

San Diego County Pays $8.1 Million After Jail Guard Fatally Shot Fleeing Detainee in the Back

by Chuck Sharman

On June 22, 2022, San Diego County agreed to pay $8.1 million to settle claims that a deputy outside a county jail chased a fleeing detainee and fatally shot him in the back. It was the largest payout for a wrongful death by the county in at ...

Condemned Alabama Prisoner Now Spared Twice

by Chuck Sharman

When his death warrant expired at 12:01 a.m. on September 23, 2022, condemned Alabama prisoner Alan Eugene Miller was still alive, capping a wild few days during which his execution was stayed by a federal judge and then reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court before executioners tried ...

Deaf Detainee Found Murdered in Baltimore Jail

by Chuck Sharman

A diminutive detainee who was deaf and communicated by sign language was found unresponsive at Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center early on October 9, 2022. Officials from the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) have since announced that the death of Javarick Gantt, ...

After $90,000 Settlement for Sexual Abuse of Oregon Juvenile Detainee, Second Suit Filed Against Now-Imprisoned Former Youth Counselor

by Chuck Sharman

On December 30, 2021, a second suit was filed in Oregon state court accusing former state youth worker Frank Milligan of sexually assaulting a juvenile detainee. Milligan, 53, was imprisoned for 30 years in 2001 for sexually abusing and attempting to murder another boy. He received an ...

Mom Sues After She Was Forced to Give Birth to Doomed Baby in “Georgia’s Toughest Para-Military Jail”

By Chuck Sharman

On September 2, 2022, the federal court for the Northern District of Georgia accepted an amended complaint from a former detainee in the Clayton County Jail who spent 13 hours in labor there because jailers allegedly thought her infant would be stillborn. Only when Tiana Hill finally ...

HRDC Sues Indiana Sheriff Over Censorship at County Jail

by Chuck Sharman

On June 27, 2022, the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), the nonprofit that publishes PLN, filed suit in federal court for the Northern District of Indiana under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, accusing St. Joseph County Sheriff William J. Redman of violating the firm’s First Amendment and ...

Supreme Court Passes on Case of New York Sex Offender Imprisoned Past Release Date for Lack of Compliant Housing

by Jory Smith and Chuck Sharman

On February 22, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to issue a writ of certiorari to hear an appeal by an impoverished New York sex offender who was forced to remain in prison two years after his release because state restrictions made finding housing ...