By Matt Clarke

On April 12,2011, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion upholding the $2.5 million jury award and $250-per-hour attorney-fees award to two women who were wrongly convicted of felonies.

Kimberly Sykes and Tevya Grace Urquhart were wrongly convicted of larceny by conversion and false report ...

The Superior Court of California, Alameda County, entered a $26,203.80 judgment in a false imprisonment claim. Jorge Gallegos was a prisoner in the California Department of Corrections (CDOC) serving a 12 year sentence that began on September 14, 1995. In August of 2002, an agent of the CDOC informed his ...

A $26,500 settlement was reached in a wrongful imprisonment suit filed against the Washington State Department of Corrections (WDOC).

In November 1997, Benjiman Abolafya was convicted of third degree rape and sentenced to 60 months in WDOC custody. After receiving the applicable good-time credit, his earned release date was August ...

A $50,000 settlement was reached in an unlawful imprisonment suit filed against the Washington State Department of Corrections (WDOC).

On March 31, 1992, Jeffrey Westfall pled guilty to one count attempted second-degree rape and two counts of residential burglary and was sentenced to 128 months. At the time of sentencing ...

Steven Larson sued the CDOC alleging constitutional violations, false imprisonment, and negligence after he was unlawfully held for 47 days.

In 2007, Larson violated the conditions of his parole. At the revocation hearing, Larson received a firm parole discharge date of February 14, 2007. Larson showed CDOC officials paperwork reflecting ...

Former Hawaii prisoner Wade T. Itagaki, who was held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center in Honolulu for 83 days after his sentence expired on Sept. 5, 2006, was awarded $83,000 by a federal jury in February 2011.

When prison officials realized their mistake, Itagaki, a homeless veteran, was quickly ...

The U.S. Department of Justice agreed in April 2011 to pay almost $1.9 million to two former prisoners wrongfully convicted of murder, who spent a combined 49 years in prison for a District of Columbia homicide.

Joseph Wayne Eastridge and Joseph Nick Sousa, along with two co-defendants, were convicted in ...

The City of Philadelphia has agreed to pay $85,000 to a man who was wrongfully arrested and imprisoned for a year for a crime he didn’t commit.

When Eugene Robinson saw his photo in the Week’s Most Wanted section of the Philadelphia Daily News on August 4, 2008, he later ...

A paperwork error was blamed for a schizophrenic and bipolar woman being held in Louisiana jails for eight months even though the charges against her were dropped and she had not been appointed an attorney. Louisiana state law requires that prisoners be released if they are not appointed an attorney within 72 hours.

Melissa E. Poche, 55, was homeless when she was arrested in July 2009 on four misdemeanors. Deciding the arrest was punishment enough, the District Attorney’s office dropped the charges; the resulting paperwork, however, showed that only one charge had been dropped.

“Our intent was not to file formal charges against her,” said District Attorney Hillar Moore. “That’s what we thought we did, but apparently we didn’t.”

As a result, Poche was lost in the system. The Baton Rouge jail sent her to the East Carroll Parish jail. When that jail became overcrowded, she was sent back to Baton Rouge. Because she had no money she was unable to make bond.

Meanwhile, Poche’s family was looking for her and even filed a missing person report. They finally located her by running an Internet search that found her name on a jail population list. Their inquiries resulted in Poche ...

On September 8, 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held the “valid assertion of the state secrets privilege” warranted dismissal of a lawsuit filed by suspects apprehended as part of the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program.

The suit was filed under the Alien Tort Statute by Binyam Mohamed and four other foreign nationals suspected of involvement in terrorist activities. Once they were apprehended, they were transferred in secret to foreign countries for detention and interrogation by U.S. or foreign officials. The rendition program allowed agents of the U.S. government “to employ interrogation methods that would [otherwise have been] prohibited under federal or international law.”

The plaintiffs were represented by the ACLU. “American corporations should not be profiting from a CIA rendition program that is unlawful and contrary to core American values,” stated ACLU executive director Anthony D. Romero. “Corporations that choose to participate in such activity can and should be held legally accountable.”

The five plaintiffs sued Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., a Boeing subsidiary and CIA contractor, alleging the company had actual or constructive knowledge that its planes were being used to facilitate “forced disappearance.” According to the plaintiffs, Jeppesen’s “flights involved the transportation of terror suspects pursuant to the extraordinary ...