Second Circuit Holds Confidential Informant's Reliability Alone
Insufficient to Support Hearsay or Conclusionary Statements
By David M. Reutter
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has held that prison officials, in assessing the reliability of evidence at a prisoner's disciplinary hearing, must reference the totality of the circumstances and that an ...
by David M. Reutter
A bungled escape attempt at Florida's Charlotte Correctional Institution (CCI) on June 11, 2003, resulted in the first death of a female guard. Darla Lathram, 38, began working at CCI in June 2002. She was beat with a sledgehammer and pronounced dead at the scene. Her ...
by David M. Reutter
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a New Jersey federal district court's grant of a motion for summary judgment in separate 42 U.S.C. §1983 actions filed by prisoner's Joel Fraise, Alexander Kettles, and John Harris. Their suits challenged the constitutionality of a New Jersey ...
by David M. Reutter
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that prison guards at the Florida State Prison (FSP) who beat prisoner David. C. Skrtich are not entitled to dismissal. Two of the defendants, Timothy A. Thornton and Jason P. Griffis, are the same guards recently acquitted in ...
by David M. Reutter
The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has reversed the grant of summary judgment favoring prison officials in a Bivens action filed by Catholic Christian prisoners at the Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Florida, which challenged the BOP's rule prohibiting prisoners from receiving Communion ...
by David M. Reutter
A 42 U. S. C. § 1983 action filed in a Florida State Court alleging retaliatory job changes for the filing of grievances and lawsuits that challenged the general living conditions at Glades Correctional Institution (GCI) has been settled for $3,000. In June 1993, David Reutter, ...
By David M. Reutter
After George W. Bush won Florida by 537 votes in the 2000 election, an uproar arose when it was learned that election supervisors, using a list compiled by an Atlanta firm, had mistakenly identified voters as felons and purged them from voter rolls. Some supervisors mistakenly ...
by David M. Reutter
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that prison officials' refusal to allow prisoners to receive Nation of Islam literature was unconstitutional, but prison officials were entitled to qualified immunity from money damages for their illegal actions. Pennsylvania prisoners Richard X. Sutton, Robert X. Wise, and ...
by David M. Reutter
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the PLRA makes punitive damages prospective relief that requires the district court to make a factual finding the award is narrowly drawn to correct the violation of the Federal right. This appeal was filed by defendant guards ...
Florida DOC Ordered to Assist Felons Restore their Voting Rights
by David M. Reutter
A Florida circuit court has ordered the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) to assist ex-felons who did not receive help in the application process for restoration of their civil rights as required by state law. Florida ...
