Obama Administration Contends Prisoner Has No Right to DNA Testing by David C Fathi By David C. Fathi DNA testing is a uniquely powerful crime-solving tool. Testing crime scene evidence using new and advanced techniques has solved many previously unsolved crimes, leading to the arrest and conviction of rapists and …
Ted Stevens' Charges Dropped: A Tale of Two Justice Systems by Joshua Holland By Joshua Holland, AlterNet Posted on April 1, 2009, Printed on April 1, 2009 Editor's note: this originally appeared on AlterNet's blog, PEEK. It's immaterial that former Alaska senator Ted Stevens was a loathsome, quasi-corrupt slug of …
Alaskan Prisoner in Arizona Can Enforce CCA Contract by The Supreme Court of Alaska held that state prisoners incarcerated at a private prison in Arizona can enforce portions of the contract between the Alaska Department of Corrections (DOC) and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) that incorporate provisions of Smith v. …
Alaska Cops' Personnel Files not Confidential by James Jennings, a former Alaska state prisoner, sued police in state court under state law and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988 for damages, claiming excessive force, false imprisonment and unconstitutional application of force. The trial court ordered the city of Anchorage to …
Alaska PRA Requires Disclosure of Annexation Records by Abigail Fuller, and other Homer, Alaska residents sued the city in state court under the state Public Records Act (PRA), Alaska Stat. § 40.25.100 et see, to compel disclosure of documents used to prepare a petition for annexation of lands adjacent to …
Alaska PRA Requires Disclosure of Settlement Agreement by The Anchorage Daily News (newspaper) sued in state court under tae state Public Records Act (Act), Alaska Stat. § 9.25.110 to compel the Anchorage School District (School District) to release a copy of its settlement agreement in a federal suit. The trial …
Alaska PRA Requires Disclosure of Fiscal Report and Employee Performance Evaluation by The Anchorage Daily News (newspaper) obtained an injunction in state court under the state Public Records Act (PRA), Alaska Stat. § 44.62.310 et seq, compelling the city of Anchorage to produce a tape recording. The city later refused …
“Discretionary Function Immunity” Inapplicable to Alaska PO Duties by The Alaska Supreme Court has held that a parole officer’s day-to-day supervisory activities related to parolees are operational duties which are not entitled to discretionary function immunity. On November 23, 1996, Alaskan prisoner Calvin McGrew was released on parole. He was …
$2.5 Million Settlement For Private Prison Construction Cancellation by The City of Delta Junction (City) and Alaska corporations Allvest, Inc., and Delta Corrections Group, LLC (DCG), settled a lawsuit after House Bill 149 threatened to halt private prison construction underway at Ft. Greely. Allvest/DCG and the City commenced the building …
Alaska DOC Liable for Rape of Federal Prisoner by Prison Doctor by Alaska?s Supreme Court has held that the intentional-tort immunity law does not prevent a suit against the state when it breaches a duty separate from its role as an employer. B.R., a federal prisoner housed at the state …
Alaska Jail Settles Alcohol Withdrawal Death Case For $573,000 by On June 12, 2006, the State of Alaska settled a federal civil rights lawsuit over the wrongful death of a prisoner in a state-run jail for $573,000. Julia Walker is the mother of Troy Wallace, who died while a prisoner …
Alaska Pays Victims of Prisoner-Orchestrated Mail Bomb $2.6 Million by Following a verdict for the plaintiffs in December 1995, the State of Alaska agreed to settle with the victims of a prisoner-orchestrated mail bomb for $2.6 million. On September 17, 1991, plaintiffs, the father and stepmother of a witness who …
Alaska Superior Courts May Not Grant Furloughs Under Criminal Rule 35(b) by The Alaska Court of Appeals held that superior courts may not use their authority to modify sentences under Criminal Rule 35(b) to grant furloughs to prisoners, but may use that authority to impose a term of periodic imprisonment. …
Alaska Supreme Court Reverses SJ, Orders Continuance to Prisoner by The Alaska Supreme Court reversed a grant of summary judgment to prison medical staff and instituted the lower court to grant plaintiffs' requested continuance. Federal prisoner Donald Hymes and his wife Rita sued two Alaska Department of Corrections (ADOC) medical …
Ninth Circuit Upholds Prosecutor Denying Detainee Phone Access by The plaintiff, a federal pre-trial detainee held in a local jail, was placed in administrative segregation and lost telephone access based on a letter from the prosecutor to the U.S. Marshal, which requested such action because the plaintiff's superseding indictment named …
After 34 Years, Alabama Complies With Mental Health Order by In what used to be Wyatt v. Stickeney, the Alabama mental health/mental retardation litigation filed in 1970, the court grants a joint motion for a declaration that the defendants have complied with the most recent settlement agreement and to vacate …
Alaska Prisoners' Disciplinary Hearing Rights by In 1975 Alaska's supreme court held that under the state and federal constitutions, Alaskan prisoners enjoy substantial due process rights in prison disciplinary hearings, moreso than prisoners enjoy under the U.S. Constitution alone. The state supreme court held that Alaskan prisoners have the right …
§ 1983 Seeking Post Trial DNA Evidence Not Heck Barred by The Ninth Circuit joined the Eleventh circuit in holding that a § 1983 action seeking post-conviction access to DNA evidence is not barred by Heck v. Humphrey, 512 US 477 (1994). In 1994, William Osborne was convicted of kidnapping …
Religious Retaliatory Transfers Unconstitutional by The court of appeals for the Ninth circuit held that Alaska prisoners did not state a claim for relief that they were involuntarily transferred to out of state prisons. This occurred at a time when Alaska had no state prisons of its own, therefore felons …
Alaska: 1997 Tort Reform Legislation Facially Constitutional by The Supreme Court of Alaska held that tort reform legislation enacted by the Alaska Legislature was facially constitutional. Plaintiffs, persons considering tort actions, sought declaratory judgment voiding the legislation. The 26 SLA 1997 legislation "included many new tort law provisions, including caps …
