Texas Court of Appeals: No Law Library Access Right for Prisoner
Who Waives Appointed Counsel
By Matt Clarke
On April 30, 2008, a Texas court of appeals ruled that a prisoner who waived his right to counsel in a criminal case has no right of access to a law library. ...
By Matt Clarke
The Fifth Circuit court of appeals held that the government may place a lien on property to collect restitution for up to twenty years after the judgment, even if the victim has waived collection of the restitution.
In 1992, David B. Ridgeway was convicted of 22 federal ...
By Matt Clarke
The Fifth Circuit court of appeals upheld the denial of sentence reduction to a federal prisoner who had completed the Residential Drug Abuse treatment Program (RDATP).
Michael Richardson, a federal prisoner incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Seagoville, Texas, was told by FCI staff that ...
Louisiana Court Of Appeals Overturns Strip Tier Cell Injunction
By Matt Clarke
On June 20, 2007, a Louisiana state court of appeals overturned a district court’s granting of an injunction against prison officials placing the prisoner into a strip tier cell (STC) without his having committed a new disciplinary infraction. ...
by Matt Clarke
A Maryland court of appeals has ruled that Maryland state prisoners injured on paid jobs may only seek compensation through the Sundry Claims Board (SCB).
Melvin James Dixon, a former Maryland state prisoner, was on a work detail paying $0.90 a day at the Pre-Release Unit of ...
By Matt Clarke
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has reversed the dismissal of a challenge to the Maine Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), 34-A M.R.S. §§ 11201-11256.
John Doe is the pseudonym of a person convicted after 1982 and before 1986 of a sex offense against a family ...
By Matt Clarke
On July 23, 2007, a federal district court in California issued an opinion declining to dissolve the injunction issued in Orantes-Hernandez v. Meese, 685 F.Supp. 1488 (C.D.CA 1988), 919 F.2d 549 (9th Cir. 1990), which established immigration processing standards for Salvadoran nationals.
The class-action civil rights lawsuit ...
By Matt Clarke
The Idaho Court of Appeals has ruled that an indigent prisoner’s legal action cannot be dismissed for failure to post the bond required by I.C. § 6-610 of persons filing suit against a “law enforcement officer.”
Steven Lee Hyde, an Idaho state prisoner and adherent of the ...
by Matt Clarke
On September 20, 2007, the Supreme Court of Nevada held that parole release meetings were exempt from the requirements of the Nevada Open Meetings Law (OML), N.R.S. Chapter 241.
John Witherow, a Nevada state prisoner, filed a complaint in state court against the Nevada Board of Pardons ...
By Matt Clarke
A Texas court of appeals has held that a state prisoner properly pleaded damages within the minimum jurisdictional limits of the district court.
Jeffery D. Westbrook, a Texas state prisoner incarcerated at the Allred Unit, filed suit pro se in state district court alleging prison officials on ...
