by Matt Clarke
After granting a rare stay of execution minutes before a condemned Texas prisoner’s date with death, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) agreed on October 4, 2024, to hear his challenge to a state law that prevents him from seeking DNA testing to reduce his ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
On April 24, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed dismissal of a former federal prisoner’s Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) claim for an injury allegedly caused by federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) guards. A lower court had dismissed the claim, finding ...
On April 25, 2024, a federal jury in Southern California awarded $1.8 million to the Estate of a detainee who died of a methamphetamine overdose while incarcerated at the San Diego Central Jail. The verdict was preceded by a finding that two jail nurses intentionally denied Ronnie Sandoval needed medical ...
by Matt Clarke
On March 20, 2024, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed SB 334, a bill passed by state lawmakers to prevent prosecutors and courts from requiring criminal defendants to waive their Fourth Amendment rights as a condition of a plea agreement or court order—waivers that can survive completion of their criminal sentences for decades.
Under the U.S. Constitution and Article I, Section 10 of the Virginia Constitution, citizens have a right not to be subjected to unreasonable search and seizure. But for many state prisoners, even after release, “You can be walking down the street, and a uniformed law enforcement officer can stop you, recognize you, and know you have a waiver, and then proceed to just search you without any cause,” according to Rob Poggenklass, Executive Director of the advocacy group Justice Forward Virginia.
That leaves criminal defendants facing an “impossible choice,” according to Lauren Whitley, Chief Public Defender for Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, King George and Stafford Counties, where the waivers are standard conditions of most plea agreements—which most criminal cases are resolved with, like 95% of those in the U.S.
“It encourages bad policing,” she said. “Fourth Amendment waivers give [police] free reign to do whatever they ...
by Matt Clarke
When detainee Reynaldo Ramos, 55, was found unresponsive in his Robert Pressley Detention Center cell in California’s Riverside County on April 16, 2024, efforts to resuscitate him failed, and he was pronounced dead. He had been arrested on drug trafficking charges 10 days earlier. The County Sheriff’s ...
by Matt Clarke
On February 29, 2024, the federal court for the Central District of California approved a settlement under which Riverside County paid $7.5 million to the survivors of a county jail detainee who died in custody. The agreement resolved a lawsuit they filed blaming the death of Christopher ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
"Does somebody have any common sense?”
That was the question U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken had for Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) officials when they appeared before her on December 12, 2023, to respond to a show-cause motion by transgender state prisoner Zera Lola Zombie, who ...
by Matt Clarke
Former Kentucky Department of Corrections (DOC) parole officer Ronald R. Tyler, 57, was sentenced to three years in federal prison on March 21, 2024, for sexually assaulting three probationers. Victims Stephanie Logsdon Smith, Cammie Musinski and Bridgett Dennis—later known as Bridgett Parson—filed suit against Tyler. DOC fired ...
by Matthew T. Clarke
In November 2023, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published an audit of the $2.75 million contract awarded to the American Correctional Association (ACA) by DOJ’s Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to accredit and reaccredit its lockups. The ...
by Matt Clarke
On November 28, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit declined to let a federal prisoner sue officials with the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) who allegedly put him in harm’s way at an Illinois lockup. The decision was predictable, given the adamant ...
