by Ed Lyon
The final two weeks of 2018 were extremely busy for Florida’s Supreme Court with respect to capital punishment jurisprudence.
Florida codefendants Gerald Murray and Steven Taylor were convicted in separate trials for capital murder and sentenced to die by nonunanimous jury verdicts in the 1990s. Taylor’s case ...
by Ed Lyon
On July 16, 2019, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in a two-to-one ruling, affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a Fourth Amendment claim prior to a jury trial, at which the jury found for the defendant prison officials on an Eighth Amendment claim.
The facts of ...
by Ed Lyon
Unlike most state prison systems, Alaska’s Department of Corrections (DOC) usually allows prisoners to correspond by mail with prisoners in other units. In February 2014, prison officials adopted a policy that prohibited prisoners assigned to three units from sending letters to each other. The reason for the ...
by Ed Lyon
On September 17, 2019, a federal judge denied several summary judgment claims urged by CoreCivic while granting one.
Federal prisoner Gerardo Cruz-Sanchez entered the Otay Mesa Detention Center (OMDC) in San Diego, California, operated by private prison corporation CoreCivic on February 4, 2016.
He was not given ...
by Ed Lyon
On September 16, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuitissued an opinion affirming a district court’s summary judgment against Dennis Davis on his medical indifference and malpractice suit against prison doctor Francis Kayira.
Davis is in poor general health and requires dialysis regularly. He has ...
by Ed Lyon
For over a decade, the Education Justice Program (EJP), an extension of the University of Illinois, has taught classes at the Danville Correctional Center (DCC), a facility in the east-central part of the state run by the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC). Core classes in subjects like ...
by Ed Lyon
In what it called “a legal question of first impression” within its jurisdiction, on May 24, 2019 the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the lack of a discharge plan to obtain medication and treatment for mental health care after a detainee is released from custody ...
by Ed Lyon
On April 15, 2019, a New York Court of Claims awarded prisoner Dain Morawski a total of $30,000 for pain and suffering caused by an overdose of incorrectly filled prescription medication. The judgment followed a four-day bench trial in which the defendants and medical experts presented testimony. ...
by Ed Lyon
Christina C. Riley was a model prisoner at the Maui Community Correctional Center in Hawaii, and thus was allowed to participate in a work-release program. Parking her car at the jail, she left for work in the mornings and returned afterward to the lock-up. MCCC guard James ...
by Ed Lyon
On February 10, 2015, Alexander Jeffrey Sutherland was arrested in Manteca, California and charged with public intoxication. The police took him to the San Joaquin County Jail (SJCJ).
After booking, Sutherland, 27, was placed in an isolated sobering cell, which required him to be monitored at 15-minute ...
