From City Belt (www.citybelt.org)

Lives (and Votes) Lost

Prisoners, parolees and probationers cannot vote in New Jersey -- but for
one former prisoner who was wrongfully convicted and can, it's the last
thing on his mind.

By Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg

Nothing ties Larry Peterson to the rape and murder of Jacqueline Harrison
but the stubborn say-so of the Burlington County prosecutor's office. Their
obstinance makes sense when you consider that Peterson is planning a civil
suit and demanding an investigation into those responsible for his wrongful
conviction and 17 years in prison.

They took one lie after another and just built a case on that, said
Peterson. "Being a poor black man, or anyone that's poor, and can't defend
himself because you don't have money to obtain a good attorney -- you up
the creek. So I got jacked up."

On Aug. 24, 1987 Harrison was found strangled on a dirt road in Burlington
County. Harrison's best friend and ex-boyfriend told prosecutors Peterson
had scratches on his arms.

After learning he was a suspect, Peterson went to police to declare his
innocence. He was charged with capital murder and sexual assault -- in
March 1989 he was convicted.

In July 2005 …

The state of Hawaii has agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle a class action federal lawsuit involving hundreds of wrongfully imprisoned individuals. The state also agreed to implement measures ensuring the timely release of prisoners.

The lawsuit, brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by the American Civil Liberties Union …

Los Angeles County paid $80,000 to settle a California parolee's
overdetention suit that alleged failure to process release information for one week.

On June 4, 2001, William Green was arrested by his parole agent on a violation for failing to register as a sex offender. On July 6, 2001, he …

Award-winning prison journalist and civil rights figure Wilbert Rideau, once described as “the most rehabilitated prisoner in America,” is free after spending more than four decades behind bars. Ironically, Rideau’s freedom came not from being exonerated, but from being found guilty a fourth time.

Rideau was a 19-year-old, virtually illiterate, eighth-grade dropout when he robbed a Lake Charles bank on February 16, 1961. After collecting $14,079 in cash, Rideau, who is black, kidnapped three white employees and drove them to a bayou on the edge of town. There he shot teller Julia Ferguson, then stabbed her through the heart with a hunting knife. Rideau also shot the other hostages and left them for dead, but they survived. Caught just 80 minutes later, Rideau would spend the next 44 years in some of Louisiana’s most brutal prisons.

Rideau was sentenced to die for Ferguson’s murder in April 1961. It was the first of three death sentences to be imposed by juries comprised entirely of white men—the second came in 1964, the third in 1970. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Rideau’s first conviction in 1963 because his confession had been broadcast repeatedly on local television before his trial. His second conviction was …

by Marvin Mentor

The California Court of Appeal, in an unpublished opinion, reversed a Los Angeles (L.A.) County jury verdict that had awarded $1 million in damages to a jail detainee who was brutally beaten and raped in his L. A. County Jail module while waiting twenty hours to be …

by Michael Rigby


An Ohio prisoner should be awarded $1,402.92 for 11 days of false imprisonment, a magistrate recommended to the Ohio Court of Claims on October 21, 2004.

On September 14, 1999, plaintiff Glen Wilson was sentenced to two years in prison and up to 3 years of post-release …

Court Orders Washington DOC to Stop Dragging Its Feet
on Sex Offender Release Plans

by Hank Balson

The Washington Court of Appeals ruled in May that the state's Department of Corrections (DOC) has been illegally delaying decisions on early release plans for sex offenders, depriving certain prisoners of their earned early release credits without due process. The court held that DOC must act on proposed release plans in a timely manner, so as to ensure the inmate has a genuine opportunity to benefit from the earned early release credits.

Washington prisoners incarcerated for sex offenses are eligible to earn early release credits that may enable them to transfer to community custody prior to the completion of their maximum sentence. As such prisoners approach their earned early release date, they are required to submit a plan for transferring to community custody. DOC used to prohibit certain prisoners from submitting community custody plans if the state was considering referring them for possible civil commitment proceedings.

In 2002 the Washington Court of Appeals ruled that DOC could not deprive a prisoner of his earned early release credits solely because DOC was considering referring that prisoner for civil commitment under Washington's sex offender civil …

A Rhode Island jury awarded a prisoner $3,900 for false imprisonment on April 21, 2004. In August 1994, William Ross was incarcerated and held by the Rhode Island Department of Corrections (RIDOC) on a minor larceny charge.

During his incarceration, the State of Oklahoma issued a warrant for his arrest …

By Robert H. Woodman

The Tenth District Court of Appeals of Ohio upheld a $7,820 damages award by the Ohio Court of Claims to Alton M. Stroud, a prisoner of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DORC). In its 2-1 decision, the appeals court found that DORC “may be …

The Tenth Circuit court of appeals has held that a prisoner who claims he was denied an attorney or court hearing for 73 days while awaiting extradition for parole revocation need not show that the revocation had been reversed before filing suit.

Steven Roy French, an Oklahoma state prisoner, filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging his civil rights were violated when he was held in jail for 73 days without access to an attorney or the courts. French was convicted in Oklahoma, but was serving out his parole in Colorado. On November 13, 2001, he was summoned to his parole officer's office. There she accused him of having flushed" his system of drugs to beat a urinalysis. She arrested him for parole violation.

For the following 73 days, Adams was incarcerated at the Adams County Detention Center in Colorado, awaiting extradition to Oklahoma for parole revocation proceedings. Despite repeated requests, he was neither informed of the specific reason for his incarceration, allowed to meet with an attorney, nor given a hearing. French wrote a local public defender who secured his release. Later he filed suit.

The district court dismissed Fench's suit, reasoning that the suit, if successful, necessarily …