Access to Justice

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2023

How Baton Rouge Activists Won A Rare Civil Rights Settlement

By Marco Poggio

Activists who accused the Baton Rouge police of brutalizing them at a 2016 protest faced long odds as they sought to hold the department accountable. But two veteran civil rights attorneys helped secure the group a rare $1 million settlement this month as a two-week jury trial neared its conclusion.

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Analysis

Inside The Fight To Update DC's Criminal Code

By Katie Buehler

As the District of Columbia prepares to enact a wholly revised criminal code to replace its jumbled set of statutory provisions cobbled together over 122 years, critics and congressional Republicans are objecting to a handful of provisions, including an end to most mandatory minimum sentences and reduced maximum sentences for certain violent offenses, insisting they would embolden criminals.

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Pro Bono Spotlight

New Law Helps Lathrop, Bryan Cave Win Mo. Exoneration

By Katryna Perera

Relying on a recently passed state law giving prosecutors new authority to challenge wrongful convictions, attorneys with Lathrop GPM and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner won a ruling this month exonerating a St. Louis man following a 1995 murder conviction they said had been marred by false testimony.

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Retired Atty's Fight To Help End DC Driver License Penalties

By Andrea Keckley

After retiring in 2018 from several decades of government work, a former U.S. Department of Education attorney found a new opportunity to serve the public as he recently helped mount a successful challenge to a Washington, D.C., rule barring individuals with unpaid fines from obtaining or renewing driver licenses.

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Use Of Plea Bargains Undermining Justice, ABA Report Says

By Jack Karp

The overuse of plea bargains in criminal prosecutions is undermining the criminal justice system's integrity, exacerbating its racial inequality and creating "perverse incentives" to prioritize expediency over fact-finding, according to an American Bar Association report issued Wednesday.

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Justices Say Ariz. Got Death Penalty Due Process Wrong

By Jess Krochtengel

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday said Arizona high court justices so wrongly interpreted the state's criminal procedure rules that federal review was warranted, in a death penalty appeal that spurred a 5-4 divide among the justices.

Opinion attached | Read full article »

ICE, Prison Co. Targeted Detainee Hunger Strikers, Suit Says

By Ben Abrams

Staff at two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities in California regularly retaliated against migrant detainees for engaging in hunger strikes, including by denying them basic hygiene supplies and threatening solitary confinement, a new lawsuit alleges.

Complaint attached | Read full article »

Perspectives

What Landmark Ruling Means For Civil Rights Suits In Nevada

The Nevada Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Mack v. Williams ends the use of qualified immunity in the state, and though the defense will likely be revived by the Legislature, the decision provides a framework for litigants to hold state actors accountable for violations of state constitutional protections, says Austin Barnum at Clark Hill.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2023 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2023 editorial advisory boards.

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