by Attorney Kent Russell, Sept. 2003, 67 pages plus appendix
Review by John E. Dannenberg
The completely revised 4th Edition
of the California Habeas Handbook, a self-help manual on the preparation of both California and federal habeas corpus petitions, guides pro per litigants in avoiding the pitfalls of procedural traps ...
Retributive Denial Of Hepatitis-C Treatment
States Eighth Amendment Claim
by John E. Dannenberg
A U.S. district court in New York has
held that when a state prisoner's doctor-ordered Rebetron Therapy for his Hepatitis-C (Hep-C) disease was denied as punishment for a dirty urine test, deliberate indifference to his serious medical ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The New Hampshire Supreme Court
held that state law RSA 622:7-b, which imposed a 5% surcharge on the price of all commissary sales, amounted to a disproportionate tax in violation of the New Hampshire Constitution. The 1999 law, whose beneficiary for the first $750,000 collected was ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a 1987 change to the U.S. Sentencing Reform Act (SRA) (18 U.S.C. § 4206(c)) that allowed for parole eligibility to be extended beyond the original statutory guideline range was ex post facto if applied to convictions predating ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals brought its law of the Circuit into compliance with recent U.S. Supreme Court case law to add the additional test of "knowing unlawfulness" in Eighth Amendment prisoner claims where qualified immunity is raised as a defense by prison officials. ...
by John E. Dannenberg
California's $5.3 billion prison spending plan was shaved only a miniscule $35 million in the August 2, 2003 $100 billion annual state budget - a "budget" that is admittedly $38.2 billion out of balance over the next two years - while state vehicle registration fees were ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that summary judgment for defendant prison guards was inappropriate without a trial to develop the facts, in a case where a prisoner claimed he was viciously beaten by six guards while another guard watched.
Carl M. Smith sued ...
by John E. Dannenberg
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that where guards' pepper spraying of combatant prisoners in one cell did not violate their Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment, the drift of the spray to neighboring cells, with no attention to calls of distress, ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
In February, 2003, The Nebraska Department of Corrections (DOC) has contracted with AT&T to set up what may be the most progressive prisoner phone service in the United States. The five-year contract makes AT&T the sole provider of local and long distance services, associated equipment, maintenance ...
by John E. Dannenberg
Under California Code of Civil Procedure §526a, a private citizen taxpayer may bring an action to compel an officer or agent of a municipality to restrain him from wasteful or injurious expenditure of government funds. In a novel application of this law, the state was compelled ...
