by Douglas Ankney
On February 22, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland granted dismissal to a suit filed by state prisoner Keith Darnell Kelly, after he accepted a $30,000 settlement of his civil rights claims for a beating he suffered from guards while he …
by Douglas Ankney
On December 6, 2024, the Supreme Court of Alabama held that because the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC) failed to raise the issue of venue in the circuit court, the Court of Criminal Appeals’ (CCA) reversal based on venue was error.
In 2018, Joshua …
by Douglas Ankney
On July 9, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that 18 U.S.C. section 3624(b)(1), which awards federal prisoners of up to 54 days per year of good conduct credits, is to be prorated for partial years of confinement.
Christopher …
by Douglas Ankney
On November 22, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona sua sponte granted summary judgment to transgender prisoner Oscar Contreras Aguilar on the issue of exhaustion of administrative remedies where Federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) officials repeatedly denied the necessary forms to …
by Douglas Ankney
On December 30, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated a district court’s judgment that had held that prisoner plaintiff Clint Edwards had: failed to exhaust his administrative remedies; failed to adequately allege a conditions of confinement claim; and failed …
by Douglas Ankney
On June 24, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a district court’s denial of qualified immunity to two registered nurses, Diana Snow and Christina Watson, who were employed by the Lake County Detention Center (“Jail”) when prisoner Randy Wiertella …
by Douglas Ankney
In a class-action suit, the Kennebec Superior Court of Maine ordered commissioners of the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services (“MCPDS Defendants”) to create a plan to remedy the systemic failure to timely appoint counsel to indigent defendants. The Court also outlined its paradigm for …
by Douglas Ankney
On February 25, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) reversed Oklahoma prisoner Richard Eugene Glossip’s death sentence. This is the second time a death sentence imposed upon Glossip has been overturned. His case wreaks of state corruption, so much so that a …
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that a prisoner must have been convicted of the death-resulting enhancement element of 21 U.S.C. section 841(b)(1)(C) before that enhancement may be applied under 18 U.S.C. section 3632(d)(4)(D)(lviii) to make a prisoner ineligible for time …
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled on January 29, 2025 that Michigan’s tolling provision codified in Mich. Comp. Laws section 600.5856 is not inconsistent with the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA).
On March 2, 2018, prisoner Lamont Bernard …
