by David M. Reutter
When is hearsay evidence not hearsay? On August 31, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit provided its answer. Affirming the conviction of a federal prisoner in Hawaii for assaulting a fellow prisoner, the Court said that statements from the victim …
by David M. Reutter
On July 25, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that a district court in Virginia abused its discretion by implicitly overruling a prisoner’s spoliation objections when several critical issues were left unresolved by the magistrate judge.
The Court’s …
by David M. Reutter
On August 17, 2022, an Indiana prisoner learned a painful lesson from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. As PLN has repeatedly warned, courts are empowered by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e, to dismiss any lawsuit …
by Anthony W. Accurso and David M. Reutter
After 16 detainee deaths in 2021[See: PLN, Feb. 2022, p.1], the carnage continued at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex in 2022, leaving 19 more people dead. Having recorded an average of just six deaths a year from …
by David M. Reutter
In a decision filed on November 28, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed the grant of qualified immunity (QI) to Delaware prison officials in a lawsuit brought by a mentally ill prisoner held in solitary confinement for seven months, …
by David M. Reutter
On September 28, 2022, as Hurricane Ian bore down on Florida and neared Category 5 strength, the state Department of Corrections (DOC), which holds about 80,000 prisoners, began evacuating 2,300 of them from 23 prisons statewide. But some lockups in the storm’s path took …
by David M. Reutter
On July 5, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that giving a jury a standard instruction to defer to prison officials was error when the jury needed to decide whether prison officials failed to protect a prisoner from violence.
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by David M. Reutter
Giving a break to the prisoner who filed a civil rights suit she dismissed on July 8, 2022, Judge Anne R. Traum of the federal court for the District of Nevada ordered return of the plaintiff’s $402 filing fee.
The prisoner, Rafael Bernardo …
by David M. Reutter
On July 21, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit modified a judgment against a prisoner in a civil rights lawsuit he filed and lost against a doctor at Indiana’s LaPorte County Jail (LPCJ). The Court capped the cost amount of …
by David M. Reutter
A Mississippi law that became effective on July 1, 2022, gives the state Department of Corrections (DOC) the discretion to choose the method of execution for a condemned prisoner. In addition, it added nitrogen hypoxia, electrocution, and firing squad as execution options, while declaring …
