— By James Ridgeway | Wed July 15, 2009 12:18 PM PST

Mother Jones

Sonia Sotomayor's all-but-certain confirmation will be a notable victory for the Democrats, and a long-overdue victory for diversity on the nation's highest court. Whether it will be a victory for criminal justice is another question altogether—and one that seems to matter little to most of her liberal supporters.

Long before her Senate confirmation hearings began, progressive politician, lawyers, scholars, activists, and bloggers had joined together, as if in one voice, to sing Sotomayor’s praises. Beyond predictable paeans to her qualifications and her inspiring personal story, the focus of this chorus of accolades is not Judge Sotomayor’s passion for justice, her moral rectitude, or even her much-discussed "empathy." Instead, Congressional Democrats and their allies have banded together to celebrate how thoroughly indistinguishable Sonia Sotomayor is from a Republican judge.

In their zeal to show that she is a "moderate," Sotomayor’s liberal supporters are downplaying all her most compelling qualities, while lauding her most conservative decisions. She has rejected the majority of racial discrimination claims, they crow, and sent most immigrants packing. On criminal justice matters, she is somewhere to the right of the man she will replace, ...

Washington State’s King County Jail has paid Kenneth L. Hoeck $1,500 to settle a claim that he was overdetained by 10 days due to the failure of jail officials to award him good time on his 60 day community custody violation sentence. In response to his grievances, he was told ...

Washington State’s King County Jail has paid $650 to settle the lost property claim of Dion K. Humphrey. In December 2002, the Jail gave Humphrey’s social security card, driver’s license and clothes to Scott Williamson, who had stolen Humphrey’s identity. The claim form states that Humphrey was also being held ...

On June 24, 2008, a New York federal jury found two New York City police officers liable in a Section 1983 malicious prosecution suit brought by security guard & part-time state police officer Anthony Manganiello. Manganiello's initial suit charged a total of ten police officers and the City of New ...

In April, 2008, five Maryland men were awarded more than $1.8 million in compensatory and punitive damages in a civil rights suit alleging false arrest and malicious prosecution by Baltimore police officer Robert Cirello.

Plaintiffs' attorneys, James L. Rhodes and Myron T. Brown of Baltimore, argued that Cirello approached four of the five men -- Jacob Adams, Kerney Toomer, Charles Bowman and Shawn Clowney -- as they were leaving a Baltimore park following a game of pick-up basketball. Plaintiffs alleged Cirello used vulgar language while ordering them to leave the park or he would "go through (their) pockets." When Clowney voiced the intent to get the officer's badge number to report his behavior, Cirello responded by pepper-spraying Clowney and arresting him. Within minutes, the other three men were also arrested, as well as a fifth man, 45-year-old Rudolph Hill, who claimed to be an innocent bystander in the incident. A young woman who witnessed the encounter supported the Plaintiffs' version of events. Cirello, on the other hand, insisted the Plaintiffs pulled a knife on him and tried to stab him. Hill, the innocent bystander, remained in jail for nearly six months before being acquitted of assault on a police officer ...

On August 30, 2005, a federal jury in Ohio awarded Michelle Black-Hosang $100,000 in compensatory damages, as well as $250,000 in punitive damages for her unlawful arrest by Sergeant James Mendenhall of the Ohio State Police. Additionally, Black-Hosang is seeking more than $100,000 in attorney's fees.

The Plaintiff's arrest was ...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has held that prosecutors, parole board members and state agencies are entitled to absolute immunity for participating in or making parole decisions. The Court’s ruling comes in the case of Liza Brown, who appealed the California federal district court’s grant of summary judgment.

Brown’s claim stemmed from the Ninth Circuit decision granting her habeas petition and ordering her release on parole. Brown v. Poole, 337 F.3d 1155 (9th Cir. 2003). During a plea agreement to Brown’s sentence for first degree murder for shooting her husband, the prosecutor said that if Brown avoided disciplinary action while in prison, she would be released on parole in “half of the 15 years” that was her minimum sentence.

Despite being disciplinary action free, Brown was denied parole after having served more than seven and a half years. She alleged in her lawsuit that the prosecutors intentionally interfered with their contractual obligation when they recommended during her parole hearing that she be denied release.

The Ninth Circuit joined its “sister circuits in holding that prosecutors should be afforded absolute immunity for parole recommendations, because parole decisions are a continuation of the sentencing process.” The Court also cited its precedent ...

Oregon Detainee Paid $30,000 for 90 Days Illegal Jail Confinement

The State of Oregon and Multnomah County have paid a man $30,000 to settle his suit for 90 days of illegal confinement.

Ira Robinson was detained in the Multnomah County jail to face criminal charges. Oregon’s speedy trial law mandates ...

On March 15, 2007, a California superior court erroneously granted a motion requesting the involuntary commitment of David Litmon, Jr. for an indeterminate length of time. The State filed the motion under the terms of Proposition 83, which went into effect in 2006 amending the Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA) to include “indeterminate commitments” as opposed to the two-year commitments previously allowed.

Litmon was initially committed under the original SVPA to a two-year term beginning in May 2000. The State later filed three consecutive recommitment petitions, consolidating two of them, to keep Litmon incarcerated to May 2008. Prior to the hearing for the 2006-2008 commitment petitions, Proposition 83 was passed, and the State succeeded in its efforts to have it applied retroactively to Litmon. Therefore, Litmon never received a trial on the consolidated petitions that had been pending for a number of years.

Litmon’s court-appointed attorney filed an appeal alleging 14th Amendment violations for excessive delay in bringing Litmon to trial on the consolidated petitions, as well as the retroactive application of Proposition 83 authorizing his indeterminate commitment. The Sixth Appellate District agreed with Litmon and reversed the lower court's order imposing an indeterminate commitment upon him, stating that "no ...

On October 19, 2005, a federal jury in Mississippi awarded Michelle Hobbs $75,000 after she was wrongfully detained for 4 hours based on an arrest warrant mistakenly issued by a court clerk.

Hobbs's initial arrest occurred in November 2003 in Horn Lake, Mississippi after she was cited for disturbing the ...