On November 30, 2005, John McHenry of Delaware County, Pennsylvania was awarded $1,000 in compensatory damages and an additional $15,000 in punitive damages as a result of his civil rights suit for false arrest.

On June 16, 2002, Father's Day, McHenry was arrested in front of his children in his ...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a false imprisonment claim against the United States. Because the action was not brought within the six year limitation period, the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction.

Jabari Zakiya was convicted of tax evasion and failing to file income tax returns. In 1994, he was sentenced to 16 months in prison, a 36-month supervised release term and a $25,000 fine.

With good time credit, Zakiya’s release date was February 29, 1996, and his maximum sentence expiration date was in May 1996. Prison officials refused to release Zakiya, however, when he refused to sign an agreement to pay the fine as a condition of supervised release, pursuant to 18 USC sec. 3624(e). Eventually a federal court granted Zakiya’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus and ordered his immediate release. See Zakiya v. Reno, 52 F. Supp. 2d 629(E.D. Va. 1999). He was finally released on May 5, 1999.

On May 24, 2007, Zakiya filed suit seeking money damages for false imprisonment between February 29, 1996 and May 5, 1999. The district court dismissed the action for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.

The appellate court affirmed, concluding ...

The California Court of Appeal, in 2-1 decision, overruled Governor Schwarzenegger’s fourth reversal of a grant of parole for a 60-year-old female first-degree murderer after finding that her release was not supported by “some evidence” rationally indicating that she presently (35 years after the offense) represents an unreasonable risk to public safety if released on parole.

In 1971, Sandra Lawrence killed the wife of her lover, having shot her six times and then stabbed her four times with a potato peeler. She fled for 11 years, but then turned herself in. After refusing a two-year “deal,” she suffered a first- degree murder conviction at trial and was sentenced to 7 years to life. In 1993 she was granted what turned out to be the first of four grants of parole by the Board of Parole Hearings (Board), each of which was overturned based on some evidence by the Governor then in office, even though no one, “not even a representative of a ‘victims’ rights’ organization,” opposed her release.

The court reviewed relevant recent state and federal case law to determine the meaning of “some evidence” in each forum. Both federal and state courts agreed that California life prisoners have a ...

The City of Salinas, California paid a Daly City man $90,000 to settle his lawsuit for unlawful arrest, detention and excessive force.

Maurice Goodman, an African American staff paralegal for the San Mateo County Superior Court, and coach and team president of the Daly City youth football team took his ...

Ex federal prisoner and Washington, D.C., resident Isaac McKelvin filed an administrative tort claim with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), for being incarcerated 11 days past his mandatory release date. He was paid $1,375 to settle the claim.

McKelvin was incarcerated at the ...

By David C. Fathi

DNA testing is a uniquely powerful crime-solving tool. Testing crime scene evidence using new and advanced techniques has solved many previously unsolved crimes, leading to the arrest and conviction of rapists and other violent criminals. Just as important, DNA testing has exonerated at least 232 innocent persons who had been wrongly convicted, including 17 who had been sentenced to death for crimes they didn't commit.

For these reasons, John Ashcroft, Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration, has called DNA testing "the truth machine of law enforcement, ensuring justice by identifying the guilty and exonerating the innocent." But on Monday, a lawyer for the Obama administration will argue in the Supreme Court that a prisoner who claims he is innocent has no constitutional right to have DNA from the crime scene tested -- even if he is willing to pay the costs himself.

In fairness, the Obama Justice Department inherited this case from the Bush administration, which filed a brief supporting the prosecution less than three weeks before leaving office. But lawyers for the prisoner, William G. Osborne, asked the new administration to change its position in the case, as it is entitled to do, ...

Sixth Circuit Outlines Exceptions to Heck Favorable-Termination Doctrine

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has held the favorable-termination doctrine does not apply to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 actions brought by prisoners who were foreclosed from challenging their incarceration in a habeas action or who are only challenging the procedures that led to the incarceration and not the underlying conviction or duration of sentence.

The Court’s ruling comes in an appeal brought by Ohio’s Hamilton County Public Defenders (HCPD) office, which was sued by Michael Powers. An Ohio federal district court granted Powers’ motion for summary judgment in his class action lawsuit that contended the HCPD had a custom or policy of failing to seek indigency hearings on behalf of criminal defendants facing jail time for unpaid fines.

Powers was ordered to pay a $250 fine in lieu of a 30-day suspended jail sentence for a misdemeanor traffic offense. Two months later he was arrested for failing to pay the fine. After he pled guilty to the violation the jail sentence was imposed, causing him to spend at least one day in jail.

The HCPD argued that Powers’ § 1983 complaint was barred by Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), ...

By: Bob Williams

The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has invalidated Bureau of Prisons (BOP) community placement regulations as inconsistent with congressional intent. Florence (Colorado) Federal Correctional Institution Warden, Ron Wiley, appealed a 2006 habeas grant to federal prisoner Edward Wedelstedt for the invalidation of BOP regulations 28 C.F.R. §§ 570.20 and 570.21 as interpreted with 18 U.S.C. § 3621(b). The BOP was ordered by the District Court to consider Wedelstedt for Community Correctional Center (CCC) placement prior to the remaining ten percent of his sentence.

Wedelstedt received 13 months BOP incarceration after Texas convicted him in 2006 of the interstate transport of an obscene movie for sales and distribution and conspiracy to defraud the United States after paying an employee in cash. After the application of good-time credits his release date was set for May 9, 2007. He was notified that his transfer eligibility date for CCC placement was April 6, 2007, 33 days prior to his release which was ten percent of the balance of his sentence, in accordance with BOP procedure 28 C.F.R. §§ 570.20 and 570.21. Section 570.20(a) justified the regulation as a "categorical exercise of discretion for designating inmates...to community confinement ...

United States prisoner Randall Crisler appealed the revocation of his probation for violating it's conditions. The delayed revocation was ordered after his probation expired and his supervised release was ordered terminated by the appellate court.
Crisler was sentenced to three years of probation in New Mexico in 2003 for impersonating a government "officer or employee." A probation officer (PO) alleged that he breached one of his conditions on February 17, 2006, and sought judicial action. At a September 5, 2006, hearing the court did not revoke his probation but "held it in abeyance" for five months and added additional conditions. On February 27, 2007, a PO filed an amended petition for revocation reiterating previous violation and alleging additional violations on February 18, 2007. The petition, however, revealed that Crisler's probation had ended on February 17, 2007. At a subsequent hearing Crisler challenged the court's jurisdiction since his probation was over. The government argued that the September 5, 2006, hearing was still pending and the court still had jurisdiction. The court sentenced him to 90 days in prison and one year of supervised release. Crisler appealed.
On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that the ...

Illinois resident and retired Marine Timothy Finwall brought a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against the City of Chicago, two of its detectives and resident Mary Boswell for illegal, unethical and malicious prosecution. He was framed in 2001 for attempted child abduction but later acquitted. A jury awarded him just ...