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Court in Va. examines death row isolation policy
Legal Business |
2014/10/28 14:36
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Virginia's practice of automatically holding death row inmates in solitary confinement will be reviewed by a federal appeals court in a case that experts say could have repercussions beyond the state's borders.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria ruled last year that around-the-clock isolation of condemned inmates is so onerous that the Virginia Department of Corrections must assess its necessity on a case-by-case basis. Failure to do so, she said, violates the inmates' due process rights.
The state appealed, arguing that the courts should defer to the judgment of prison officials on safety issues. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments Tuesday.
The lawsuit was filed by Alfredo Prieto, who was on California's death row for raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl when a DNA sample connected him to the 1988 slayings of George Washington University students Rachel Raver and Warren Fulton III in Reston. He also was sentenced to death in Virginia, where he has spent most of the last six years alone in a 71-square-foot cell at the Sussex I State Prison.
Some capital punishment experts say a victory by Prieto could prompt similar lawsuits by death row inmates elsewhere.
"It gives them a road map," said northern Virginia defense attorney Jonathan Sheldon, who noted that the due process claim succeeded where allegations of cruel and unusual punishment have routinely failed. "It's not that common to challenge conditions of confinement on due process grounds." |
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Aggressive Securities Arbitration Services
Court News |
2014/10/22 15:13
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Conway & Conway law firm, located in New York, are impassioned about
representing public customers and industry professionals all over the
world with a team of devoted futures, securities, and commodities
arbitration attorneys. Constantly keeping abreast of developing and
current regulatory reforms, U.S. securities laws, and other topics of
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provide personalized service to each client for their futures,
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Founded in 1988, Conway & Conway has been a successful New York City
securities arbitration law firm, yielding fantastic results in
securities arbitration cases from their 565 Fifth Avenue headquarters.
At Conway & Conway, the firm's attorneys have the know-how to deal
with litigation and business counseling. At all points of negotiation
and acquisition, along with wrongful termination and other corporate
matters, we have advocated on behalf of our corporate clients. In
addition to corporate clients, the firm works with commercial clients
in all types of commercial and business litigation as well.
In the financial services industry, Conway & Conway gives exceptional
legal counsel to the public. Whether its investors in dispute or
issues with registered representatives and other associates, they have
the high-caliber legal counsel to help. Fraud lawyers at the firm are
well-versed in all things concerning the laws that apply to the
securities and futures industries.
The commodity merchant attorneys at Conway & Conway provide litigation
and arbitration services for international commodity merchants related
to trade disputes. Their extensive trial experience, combined with a
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For international commodity merchants, the commodity merchant attorneys at Conway & Conway administer arbitration and litigation
services pertinent to trade disputes.
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Texas abortion clinics reopen after court reprieve
Attorney News |
2014/10/20 13:05
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Texas abortion clinics that closed under tough new restrictions began reopening Wednesday after winning a reprieve at the U.S. Supreme Court, but the facilities were scheduling women with uncertainty and skeleton staffs.
A five-sentence ruling late Tuesday blocked parts of a sweeping Texas abortion law that required clinics to meet hospital-level operating standards starting Oct. 3. That had left only eight abortion facilities in the nation's second-most populous state.
Celebration among some abortion providers, however, was muted by logistics and fears that the victory is only temporary. Women seeking abortions kept phone lines busy at the Routh Street Women's Clinic in Dallas, where a former staff of 17 people is down to to single digits after the procedure was halted by the law earlier this month.
The high court only suspended the restrictions for now pending appeals, and offered no explanation for the decision.
"Some of them will come back, and some of them probably aren't," said Ginny Braun, the Dallas clinic director, about former employees that took other jobs in the past two weeks. "As one person eloquently put it this morning, whiplash is no longer a sustainable life choice for her."
Along the Texas-Mexico border, the only abortion clinic in 300 miles will resume abortion services in McAllen starting Friday, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder of Whole Woman's Health. But staffing and financial difficulties prevent any immediate reopening of clinics in Austin and Fort Worth, and the prospects of reopening another in Beaumont are even dimmer, she said.
Hagstrom Miller said she has laid off more than 50 employees since last year, and that the on-again, off-again status of her clinics have led to taking on $500,000 in debt over the last six months. |
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Courts reject another Arizona immigration law
Court Watch |
2014/10/20 13:05
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Arizona's authority to confront its illegal immigration woes was again reined in Wednesday when a federal appeals court threw out a 2006 voter-approved law denying bail to people in the country illegally who are charged with certain crimes.
The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals follows other battles over the state's immigration policies, including rulings that struck down much of Arizona's landmark 2010 immigration enforcement law.
A small number of the state's immigration laws have been upheld, including a key section of its 2010 law that requires police to check people's immigration status under certain circumstances.
But the courts have slowly dismantled other laws that sought to draw local police into immigration enforcement as frustrations in the state grew over what critics said was inadequate border protection by the federal government. |
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