Smart Justice
Singleton v. Cannizzaro
The 吃瓜直播 Trone Center for Justice and Equality, 吃瓜直播 of Louisiana, and Civil Rights Corps, filed suit against District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro, his office in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, and several Assistant District Attorneys for systematically breaking the laws of Louisiana and of the U.S. Constitution.
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Mississippi
Mar 2017
Smart Justice
Prisoners' Rights
Dockery v. Hall
The 吃瓜直播, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Law Offices of Elizabeth Alexander, and the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP, filed a petition for class certification and expert reports for a federal lawsuit on behalf of prisoners at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF). The lawsuit, which was filed in May 2013, describes the for-profit prison as hyper-violent, grotesquely filthy and dangerous. EMCF is operated "in a perpetual state of crisis" where prisoners are at "grave risk of death and loss of limbs." The facility, located in Meridian, Mississippi, is supposed to provide intensive treatment to the state's prisoners with serious psychiatric disabilities, many of whom are locked down in long-term solitary confinement.
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191 Smart Justice Cases
Louisiana
Aug 2017
Smart Justice
Ayo v. Dunn et al
For years, people arrested in East Baton Rouge Parish who appeared before Judge Trudy White have been jailed unless they pay a $525 fee to a private corporation called Rehabilitation Home Incarceration (鈥淩HI鈥�). This fee is paid by each person for their own pre-trial release. This fee is paid in addition to any bail amount required by the judge as a condition for that person鈥檚 release. This has been going on for at least three years in the parish.
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Louisiana
Aug 2017
Smart Justice
Ayo v. Dunn et al
For years, people arrested in East Baton Rouge Parish who appeared before Judge Trudy White have been jailed unless they pay a $525 fee to a private corporation called Rehabilitation Home Incarceration (鈥淩HI鈥�). This fee is paid by each person for their own pre-trial release. This fee is paid in addition to any bail amount required by the judge as a condition for that person鈥檚 release. This has been going on for at least three years in the parish.
Court Case
Jun 2017
Smart Justice
Burks, et al. v. Scott County, Mississippi
After learning that the Scott County Detention Center in Mississippi has held people for as long as a year without indicting them or appointing counsel, the 吃瓜直播, the 吃瓜直播 of Mississippi, and the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center filed a class action suit against the county鈥檚 sheriff, district attorney, and judges. The county鈥檚 practices violate the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments鈥� rights to counsel, to a speedy trial, and to a fair bail hearing.
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Court Case
Jun 2017
Smart Justice
Burks, et al. v. Scott County, Mississippi
After learning that the Scott County Detention Center in Mississippi has held people for as long as a year without indicting them or appointing counsel, the 吃瓜直播, the 吃瓜直播 of Mississippi, and the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center filed a class action suit against the county鈥檚 sheriff, district attorney, and judges. The county鈥檚 practices violate the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments鈥� rights to counsel, to a speedy trial, and to a fair bail hearing.
North Carolina
May 2017
Smart Justice
+2 Issues
North Carolina v. Robinson
A North Carolina judge found intentional and systemic discrimination by state prosecutors against African-American potential jurors in capital cases and commuted the sentence of death-row prisoner Marcus Robinson to life in prison without the possibility of parole in April 2012. The decision is currently under appeal.
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North Carolina
May 2017
Smart Justice
+2 Issues
North Carolina v. Robinson
A North Carolina judge found intentional and systemic discrimination by state prosecutors against African-American potential jurors in capital cases and commuted the sentence of death-row prisoner Marcus Robinson to life in prison without the possibility of parole in April 2012. The decision is currently under appeal.
Massachusetts
Jan 2017
Smart Justice
Criminal Law Reform
Bridgeman et. al v. District Attorney for Suffolk County et. al
Update: On January 18, 2017, the Massachusetts Supreme Court directed district attorneys to dismiss thousands of drug offense cases that were tainted by the misconduct of chemist Annie Dookhan. Prosecutors must produce a list of all drug convictions they plan to dismiss, and also produce a list of cases that they wish to re-prosecute, both within 90 days. They will be permitted to re-prosecute cases only if they certify they can do so on the basis of untainted evidence. The people hurt by Annie Dookhan鈥檚 actions deserve justice from the prosecutors who have the power to right thousands of grave wrongs by dismissing these cases.
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Massachusetts
Jan 2017
Smart Justice
Criminal Law Reform
Bridgeman et. al v. District Attorney for Suffolk County et. al
Update: On January 18, 2017, the Massachusetts Supreme Court directed district attorneys to dismiss thousands of drug offense cases that were tainted by the misconduct of chemist Annie Dookhan. Prosecutors must produce a list of all drug convictions they plan to dismiss, and also produce a list of cases that they wish to re-prosecute, both within 90 days. They will be permitted to re-prosecute cases only if they certify they can do so on the basis of untainted evidence. The people hurt by Annie Dookhan鈥檚 actions deserve justice from the prosecutors who have the power to right thousands of grave wrongs by dismissing these cases.