by Matt Clarke

On November 23, 2010, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a pair of opinions that clarify the requirements for suing the state for compensation following an erroneous conviction. Specifically, the Court clarified the requirement that the conviction must be reversed “on grounds which tend to establish innocence,” as set forth in G.L. c. 285D.

Humberto Guzman was convicted of trafficking, distribution and conspiracy to deliver cocaine. His convictions were reversed after he spent four years in prison. Guzman had maintained that two police detectives who testified they had observed him dealing cocaine had actually observed his cousin. The prosecution maintained that Guzman and his cousin were the same person.

Guzman’s attorney had also represented two men who were convicted of having purchased cocaine from Guzman based on the testimony of the same two police detectives. Although he knew they could testify that Guzman was not the person who sold them the cocaine, the attorney didn’t call them as witnesses at Guzman’s trial because he felt there was a conflict of interest with their defenses. Guzman’s case was overturned based on ineffective assistance of counsel due to his attorney’s conflict of interest.

Guzman was not retried because the ...

On November 2, 2010, a New York federal jury awarded $18.5 million to a man who was cleared of a rape conviction after serving more than two decades in prison. At the time it was the largest award to a wrongfully convicted person in New York City.

Alan Newton was convicted in 1985 of rape, robbery and assault, primarily based on eyewitness testimony. He fought his conviction after he was sentenced to 13½ to 40 years, and requested DNA testing in August 1994.

The New York City Police Department finally located the rape kit in 2005, more than ten years after Newton and his attorneys had requested the evidence, despite claims over the previous decade that the kit could not be found and was presumed destroyed. Testing revealed that the DNA collected from the victim did not match Newton, and he was exonerated and released on July 6, 2006.

Newton filed suit against the city, and his civil case went to trial in October 2010. Newton’s attorney, John F. Schulty III, argued that the Police Department had employed a shoddy system of storing and tracking post-conviction evidence, including DNA evidence. For years that evidence was tracked by paper and pen. ...

In 2005, the County of Sacramento agreed to pay $9,500 to settle a false arrest/imprisonment suit.

Daniel Genzoli was arrested after his fingerprints allegedly matched up with prints taken from a business that was burglarized. It turned out later, though, that Genzoli’s prints had been mixed up with prints that ...

On May 21, 2009, a Michigan federal court denied a motion by defendants for attorney fees and costs in an unsuccessful lawsuit brought by an exoneree.

During a custody dispute with his ex-girlfriend in 1987, Mark Norman Cleary's seven-year-old daughter accused him of child molestation. He was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced. More than ten years later, the daughter recanted. In December 2004, Cleary was granted a new trial and the charges were dismissed. By then, he had spent more than 16 years in prison.

Cleary filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 lawsuit in federal district court against Macomb County and an investigator, alleging they violated his civil rights during the criminal investigation and prosecution. Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment asserting qualified immunity. The court allowed limited discovery on the issue of qualified immunity. Ultimately, the court granted defendants' motion. Defendants moved for $210,313.50 in attorney fees and $3,952.24 in costs.

The court noted that "awarding attorney fees against a nonprevailing plaintiff is an extreme sanction and must be limited to truly egregious cases of misconduct.”
However, plaintiff's claims were not frivolous, unreasonable or groundless. “Furthermore, the Court's conclusion that defendants did not commit a constitutional violation is ...

On October 1, 2004, the Fourth Circuit court of appeals decided that most of the sealed documents in a lawsuit involving the DNA exoneration of a man convicted of a rape-murder should be available to the public.

Earl Washington, Jr., was convicted of the 1982 rape-murder of Rebecca Lynn Williams in Culpepper, Virginia. Ten years later his death sentence was commuted to life. In 2000 he was pardoned based on DNA evidence. Washington filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 civil rights suit in federal district court alleging the police violated his constitutional rights.

Washington requested a subpoena duces tecum requiring the production of all documents related to the murder and his arrest, confession and prosecution. The Virginia Department of State Police (VDSP) released most of the documents, but withheld 15 documents, claiming they contained sensitive information about a suspect and could compromise the ongoing criminal investigation. Washington moved to compel production of the documents and the district court ordered them released, but sealed the documents, limiting the release to the parties, their lawyers, the lawyers' employees and designated experts.

Later, Washington sought to lift the protective order and media entities moved for released of the documents. The district court ordered ...

A South Dakota jury awarded an insurance salesman who was convicted of mail fraud $27.4 million in a lawsuit that alleged deceit and breach of fiduciary duty, causing his incarceration.

Eugene Kent began selling health insurance in 1990 to a South Dakota association of bankers. He offered the policies through ...

On September 9, 2003, the District of Columbia agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit surrounding the unlawful strip search of a teenager during a tour of the D.C. Jail.

On December 22, 2000, Reuben Minor was dropped off by his mom at the D.C. Jail. Minor was scheduled ...

On December 21, 2006, the state of Washington agreed to pay $20,000 to a former prisoner whose release date was miscalculated by Department of Corrections (DOC) officials.

Lee Harper spent an extra 193 days in DOC custody after DOC staff miscalculated the amount of prior custody credit to which he ...

Attorney John J. Wilson, a Department of Justice lawyer for almost 31 years, and the author of federal regulations for the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, has condemned the practices of Rhode Island Family Court magistrates, who have locked up dozens of juveniles for non-criminal offenses. According to Wilson, incarcerating non-criminal juveniles for even one night violates the basic premise of the federal act.

Wilson said the act provides money to states like Rhode Island if they follow federal guidelines for youths in the justice system. “We don’t punish adults for doing things that are not criminal, so why in heaven’s name would we punish children for doing things that aren’t criminal,” he asked. “[It’s] an abuse of judicial authority.... And it’s a practice that should be stopped.” At risk is the state’s eligibility to receive federal juvenile justice funding, and the state has compounded its errors by failing to report such detentions to federal officials who monitor state compliance with federal regulations.

For a number of years, according to national juvenile justice experts like Wilson, as well as attorneys, parents and students, magistrates for the Rhode Island Family Court’s truancy program have imprisoned students who misbehave ...

The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed the false imprisonment conviction of three detainees because the evidence presented at their trial was insufficient to support their convictions.

On November 5, 2006, Reheim Jaahad Shearin, Tyrone Caruthers, Jason Tyrone Dellemar and Johntavis Jermaine Kellom were all being housed at the Wilcox County Jail, in Abbeville, Georgia. Richard Knight, a guard at the jail was on duty by himself the night these detainees escaped. Knight testified that Kellom, and two other detainees that he could not identify, attacked him and took his keys, escaping while he was incapacitated.
After doing a roll call of the detainees immediately after the incident, it was found the four had escaped: Kellom and the three appellants. All of the escapees were recovered in less than 24 hours and they were jointly charged with the offenses of kidnapping with bodily injury (OCGA § 16-5-40), riot in a penal institution (OCGA § 1610-56), robbery (OCGA § 16-8-40), and escape (OCGA § 16-10-52). Kellom pled guilty as charged and was sentenced prior to the trial of the appellants. After the jury was selected and sworn, but before the opening statements of counsel, the appellants plead guilty to the charge of ...