by David M. Reutter
On September 16, 2022, in an important decision for Alabama prisoners on work-release programs, the state Supreme Court held that “willful escape” from such a program “is punishable under the escape statutes in the Alabama Criminal Code.” And it found that the Code implicitly repealed provisions ...
by David M. Reutter
On September 16, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that forcing a Muslim prisoner “to submit to cross-sex strip searches” by a transgender Wisconsin guard “substantially burdens his religious exercise.” The case was then remanded to the district court with instructions ...
by David M. Reutter
On August 4, 2022, nearly 40 years after the brutal 1983 murder of 19-year-old Barbara Grams in Tampa, the indictments of two men for the crime were announced by Hillsborough County District Attorney (DA) Andrew Warren. The news highlighted the grave injustice done to 56-year-old Robert ...
by David M. Reutter
On November 28, 2022, the State of Alabama entered a settlement with condemned prisoner Alan Eugene Miller, agreeing to refrain from further attempts to execute him by means of lethal injection. It further agreed that any future effort to execute Miller will employ his chosen method: ...
by David M. Reutter
On November 11, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of an Alabama prisoner’s civil rights action that alleged overlong delays in treatment for hernias and post-surgery complications. The case provides a lesson in the proper preparation of affidavits to support ...
by David M. Reutter
The Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) agreed on March 25, 2022, to pay $350,000 to resolve a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the estate of murdered prisoner Anthony Vidal.
The lawsuit was filed after Vidal was killed by his cellmate, Torrin Blue, on March 11, 2016, ...
by David M. Reutter
After a federal jury awarded $135,000 to an Alabama man deprived of medical care for a heart condition while detained at the Autauga County Jail (ACJ), the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama awarded another $163,268.25 in fees and expenses to his attorney ...
by David M. Reutter
On August 17, 2022, Lager George Reid, 26, was admitted to Folsom State Prison, after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of his cellmate at the jail in California’s San Bernardino County. Reid was being held at the county’s West Valley Detention Center (WVDC) ...
by David M. Reutter
On September 29, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that a civil detainee in custody of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not a “prisoner” subject to the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e. Since that law ...
by David M. Reutter
When is hearsay evidence not hearsay? On August 31, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit provided its answer. Affirming the conviction of a federal prisoner in Hawaii for assaulting a fellow prisoner, the Court said that statements from the victim reported by ...
