Solitary for Virginia Death Row Inmates Ruled Cruel & Unusual
The Fourth Circuit upheld a ruling Friday in favor of Virginia death row inmates, finding that their living conditions amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
Read morecruel and unusual punishment
NY Accused of Jailing Mentally Ill Inmates Too Long
Two legal rights groups filed a federal class action Wednesday claiming some New York inmates with mental disabilities who served their time are illegally kept behind bars because there are no beds for them at community mental health centers.
Read moreNew Guidelines Highlight Alternatives to Juvenile Lock-Up
Recent Supreme Court decisions regarding juvenile justice and emerging science on youth brain development led the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges to update its guidelines this week to call for alternatives to detention of youth offenders.
Read moreOvercrowded Ohio Jails at Breaking Point, Inmates Say
A class of inmates sued Ohio jail officials Thursday claiming chronic overcrowding and understaffing, lack of access to safe drinking water and food, and other inhumane conditions they say have led to a spike in deaths and assaults.
Read moreJudge Blasts Mississippi Cops for Harassing Disabled Man
Recommending they read William Faulkner to learn the “boundaries of human decency,” a federal judge on Friday admonished former Mississippi police officers accused of forcing a mentally disabled man to eat a mouthful of cinnamon days after making him box a cop.
Read moreDeath-Row Inmate Makes Supreme Court Bid for Gas Chamber
The Supreme Court struggled Tuesday with the claims of a man of death row who says his rare medical condition will make lethal injection severely painful under Missouri’s execution method.
Read moreElectric Chair Maker Wary of Tennessee Execution
Calling it “an accident waiting to happen,” the man who built Tennessee’s electric chair told Courthouse News that modifications made to the machine may not do an effective job in Thursday night’s planned execution of a double murderer.
Read moreMentally Ill Ex-Prisoner Says Solitary Was Torture
A mentally ill man imprisoned after stealing $1 and a hat claims in a civil rights lawsuit that Illinois prison officials tortured him by putting him in solitary confinement for two decades, where he self-mutilated himself, including slicing off his testicle and hanging it on his cell door.
Read moreSotomayor Pens Stinging Rebuke of Solitary Confinement
After the Supreme Court shot down a challenge to the use of solitary confinement in prison, Justice Sonia Sotomayor voiced alarm Tuesday about depriving inmates of daylight for months and years.
Read moreACLU Sues Over Methadone Access for Inmates
Denial of methadone to prison inmates with opioid addictions constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, the ACLU claimed in federal court Wednesday.
Read moreOregon High Court OKs 112-Year Sentence for School Shooter
The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a 112-year sentence of a young man who shot 26 of his high school classmates after killing his parents in 1998.
Read moreJudge OKs Settlement Requiring Texas to Cool Prison
Putting prison officials on notice throughout the sunbaked South, a federal judge on Tuesday approved a class-action settlement requiring Texas to install air conditioning in a state prison near Houston.
Read moreMom Says Ohio School Allowed Fake Cop to Assault Son
An Ohio mother claims in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that officials in the Akron school district allowed a man impersonating a police officer to handcuff and threaten to stun her child under the guise of a fake “scared straight” program purportedly aimed at deterring kids from committing crimes.
Read moreMississippi Sued Over ‘Unforgiving’ Voting Ban For Ex-Cons
A federal class action filed Tuesday accuses Mississippi of enforcing an arcane lifetime voting ban that keeps citizens convicted of certain felonies from ever being able to vote.
Read moreKiller Who Could Choke on Own Blood Gets 2nd SCOTUS Stay
Ridden with rare tumors, a man described by a prosecutor as a “homicidal energizer bunny” won his second stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Read moreOklahoma Approves of New Nitrogen Gas Execution Method
Oklahoma officials announced Wednesday the end of a three-year-old moratorium on executions as they plan on using a first-of-its-kind nitrogen gas inhalation method to get around difficulties in getting lethal injection drugs.
Read more