No Credit for Time Served on Wrongful Conviction by The Fifth Circuit court of appeals has held that a federal prisoner is not entitled to credit toward the supervised release portion of other consecutive sentences for time served in prison due to a wrongful conviction. Larry Jeanes, a former federal …
Cancellation of TDCJ/VitaPro Contract Reversed by ATexas appellate court held that a material fact issue of whether dehydrated textured vegetable protein (TVP) is an agricultural commodity precludes the trial court from granting the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) summary judgment declaring its contract with VitaPro invalid. In mid-1994, TDCJ …
Dismissal with Prejudice for Failure to Exhaust; Prison Must Process Grievance within Time Limits by In an opinion of great importance to prisoners filing civil rights suits, the Fifth Circuit court of appeals has upheld a district court's dismissal with prejudice toward future in forma pauperis (IFP) filing of a …
Cooke v. Travis County, TX, Complaint, Racial Discrimination, 1999 . SIX Atty Gen '0' ~ 006/006 . 99 00 445 ((':SO (D)~. CAUSE NO.___ ~ ~ fJ if § § § § ARTHUR COOKE, ERNEST CORTEZ, LARRY JOHNSON and OeaUINNA MOORE Plaintiffs, IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF § § § …
Texas Prisons Not Immune In Tort Claims Act Suits by A Texas appellate court held that the prison system and its employees are not entitled to common-law immunity, official immunity, or sovereign immunity for a claim under under the Texas Tort Claims Act (TTCA), Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code …
Texas Prisons Subject to Civil Liability by ATexas appellate court has held that the prison system was subject to liability when a prisoner slipped and fell in a prison butcher shop. Doyle Dean Cobb, a Texas prisoner, filed a state lawsuit under the Texas Tort Claims Act, Texas Civil Practice …
State Auditor Blasts Texas Correctional Industries by by Matthew T. Clarke The Texas State Auditor has issued a report on Management Controls at Texas Correctional Industries (TCI) concluding that its management controls are so poor TCI cannot fulfill its statutory mandates of training prisoners for post-incarceration jobs and reducing the …
Successive Texas Habeas Corpus Defined by The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has held that a state post-conviction petition for a writ of habeas corpus (petition) which does not challenge the prosecution or judgment does not count as a first petition for purposes of the state law restricting successive petitions, …
Texas May Not Retroactively Stop Mandatory Release by The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has held that Texas cannot reinterpret a law to retroactively deny a state prisoner mandatory release. Randy Sullivan Schroeter, a Texas state prisoner, was convicted of indecency with a child (IWC) in 1994 and sentenced to …
Texas Prisoners Bake to Death by Alex Friedmann More than one hundred people have died during a searing heat wave in Texas this past summer, including at least three prisoners. Dozens of convicts have been treated for heat-related health problems. "I've been with the system 13 years and this has …
Manslaughter Charges Against Three TX Guards Dismissed by In the July '97 issue of PLN we reported the beating death of Texas prisoner Gary Crenshaw, 31, at the hands of French Robertson unit guards. On June 30, 1997, a Jones County grand jury indicted Sgt. Monte Baker and guards Michael …
Four Indicted in Videotaped Brazoria Jail Beatings by FBI agents arrested three current and former Brazoria County jailers indicted July 29, 1998, on charges stemming from the infamous videotaped shakedown of Missouri prisoners in the Brazoria County "Rent-A-Jail." The three, Lester Arnold, David Cisneros and Robert Percival, along with former …
FRCP 12(b)(6) Standard Applied to PLRA Dismissals by The court of appeals for the Fifth circuit held that district court dismissals of prisoner lawsuits for failure to state a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(c) are subject to de novo review on appeal under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure …
Failure to Protect in Prison Fight Violates 8th Amendment by Failure To Protect In Prison Fight Violates 8th Amendment In 1994, the duty of guards to protect prisoners in prison fights was clearly established by Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994) according to a federal district court in Texas. …
Texas State Symbol Sewn by Slaves by Designers of the Texas state flag meant for its red, white and blue colors to represent bravery, loyalty and purity. But the flag of the Lone Star state also represent modern-day prison slavery. For more than 20 years, female prisoners at the Hilltop …
Fee Payment Orders Not Immediately Appealable by Fee Payment Orders Not Immediately Appealable: The court of appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that district court orders requiring partial payment of filing fees under the PLRA cannot be appealed prior to the entry of final judgment. Kirk Thompson, a Texas state …
Bivens Action is Not Time Barred When in Compliance With Rule 3 by Afederal court of appeals reversed a district court's dismissal of a wrongful death complaint filed by the mother of a federal prisoner, Shelia Moore. Moore was put in an administrative segregation cell on suspicion of taking an …
AEDPA Successive Petitions Clause Not Applicable to Disiplinary Hearings by AEDPA Successive Petitions Clause Not Applicable to Disciplinary Hearings The court of appeals for the fifth circuit held that habeas corpus petitions challenging prison disciplinary hearings that became final after prior habeas petitions challenging a criminal conviction have become final, …
$1,000 Awarded in Denial of Dental Care in TX by On July 14, 1997, federal magistrate Judith Guthrie held that Texas prison dentists were deliberately indifferent in refusing to provide dental care to a prisoner. Following a bench trial magistrate Guthrie awarded the plaintiff $1,000 in damages. Garmon Coats, a …
Jailers Charged in Bribery, Kickback Schemes by Asenior administrator in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and an independent contractor face felony bribery charges involving padded contracts for millions of dollars in jail food. And, in Texas, a McLennan County grand jury indicted a county sheriff's Sgt. on misdemeanor charges …
