by Douglas Ankney
On February 25, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) reversed Oklahoma prisoner Richard Eugene Glossip’s death sentence. This is the second time a death sentence imposed upon Glossip has been overturned. His case wreaks of state corruption, so much so that a …
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that a prisoner must have been convicted of the death-resulting enhancement element of 21 U.S.C. section 841(b)(1)(C) before that enhancement may be applied under 18 U.S.C. section 3632(d)(4)(D)(lviii) to make a prisoner ineligible for time …
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled on January 29, 2025 that Michigan’s tolling provision codified in Mich. Comp. Laws section 600.5856 is not inconsistent with the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA).
On March 2, 2018, prisoner Lamont Bernard …
by Douglas Ankney
Between 2022 and 2025, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) held between 17,164 and 18,476 prisoners and detainees, according to data from the agency’s website. During that same period, just 120 of those prisoners were transgender, either male-to-female or female-to-male. But …
by Douglas Ankney
On February 13, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit declined to extend to summary judgment proceedings based on Bank v. Pitt, 928 F.2d 1108 (11th Cir. 1991), which requires district courts to sua sponte notify pro se litigants to amend …
by Douglas Ankney
On December 5, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed an order of the district court permitting Plaintiffs Tati Abu King and Toni Heath Johnson (collectively “Plaintiffs”) to proceed under the doctrine expounded in the U.S. Supreme …
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled on December 23, 2024 that a district court erred in dismissing, without a hearing, prisoner-plaintiff Henry Jones’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 complaint (“Complaint”) for failure to exhaust administrative remedies where a factual dispute existed as …
by Douglas Ankney
On December 24, 2025, the Nevada Court of Appeals reversed the state district court’s dismissal of pretrial detainee David North’s claim that CoreCivic, the private prison operator, violated his due process rights under the Nevada Constitution by failing to protect him from violence at the …
by Douglas Ankney
On September 16, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (“Court” or “Seventh Circuit”) revived former prisoner Carl Joseph McDaniel’s suit against the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) alleging violations of his rights under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act …
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a jury’s award of $265,000 to Pennsylvania prisoner Henry Unseld Washington who was sexually assaulted twice by guard T.S. Oswald.
In 2013, Oswald and another guard identified as a “sergeant” escorted the handcuffed Washington to the visiting room. …
