by Robert W. Wood1

Claims for false imprisonment may be brought in various ways under federal or state law. An individual who has been wrongfully incarcerated may sue under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 for a violation of his constitutional rights. The individual may also sue under state tort law, making claims for the traditional torts of false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, or abuse of process. Furthermore, many states now expressly provide a statutory scheme for addressing false imprisonment claims.

At the root of all of these causes of action is a fairly common fact pattern: a plaintiff is arrested or convicted, spends time behind bars, is later exonerated, and then seeks redress for his injuries. There may or may not be prosecutorial misconduct. Although there may well be nuances between the differing legal bases upon which such a claim may be brought, I have argued that the commonality of this fact pattern should mean that such recoveries should be excludable from income under Section 104 of the Code.2 I will not re-state all of those arguments here, but will endeavor to summarize them briefly.
[Editor’s Note: The reasoning used in this argument may also be successful in challenges to the physical ...

by David M. Reutter

A former Massachusetts prisoner has received $100,000 to settle a claim of wrongful and illegal confinement. PLN previously reported on this incident, which stems from the failure of the Massachusetts Department of Correction (MDOC) and Parole Board to implement a court ruling that required time served ...

Last January, a Mississippi federal jury awarded a former prisoner $250,000 for being falsely incarcerated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC). The facts of the case exhibit an unbelievable abuse of power by MDOC officials.

After pleading guilty to burglary of an automobile, Will Terrance Porter was sentenced on ...

— By James Ridgeway | Wed July 15, 2009 12:18 PM PST

Mother Jones

Sonia Sotomayor's all-but-certain confirmation will be a notable victory for the Democrats, and a long-overdue victory for diversity on the nation's highest court. Whether it will be a victory for criminal justice is another question altogether—and one that seems to matter little to most of her liberal supporters.

Long before her Senate confirmation hearings began, progressive politician, lawyers, scholars, activists, and bloggers had joined together, as if in one voice, to sing Sotomayor’s praises. Beyond predictable paeans to her qualifications and her inspiring personal story, the focus of this chorus of accolades is not Judge Sotomayor’s passion for justice, her moral rectitude, or even her much-discussed "empathy." Instead, Congressional Democrats and their allies have banded together to celebrate how thoroughly indistinguishable Sonia Sotomayor is from a Republican judge.

In their zeal to show that she is a "moderate," Sotomayor’s liberal supporters are downplaying all her most compelling qualities, while lauding her most conservative decisions. She has rejected the majority of racial discrimination claims, they crow, and sent most immigrants packing. On criminal justice matters, she is somewhere to the right of the man she will replace, ...

Washington State’s King County Jail has paid Kenneth L. Hoeck $1,500 to settle a claim that he was overdetained by 10 days due to the failure of jail officials to award him good time on his 60 day community custody violation sentence. In response to his grievances, he was told ...

Washington State’s King County Jail has paid $650 to settle the lost property claim of Dion K. Humphrey. In December 2002, the Jail gave Humphrey’s social security card, driver’s license and clothes to Scott Williamson, who had stolen Humphrey’s identity. The claim form states that Humphrey was also being held ...

On June 24, 2008, a New York federal jury found two New York City police officers liable in a Section 1983 malicious prosecution suit brought by security guard & part-time state police officer Anthony Manganiello. Manganiello's initial suit charged a total of ten police officers and the City of New ...

In April, 2008, five Maryland men were awarded more than $1.8 million in compensatory and punitive damages in a civil rights suit alleging false arrest and malicious prosecution by Baltimore police officer Robert Cirello.

Plaintiffs' attorneys, James L. Rhodes and Myron T. Brown of Baltimore, argued that Cirello approached four of the five men -- Jacob Adams, Kerney Toomer, Charles Bowman and Shawn Clowney -- as they were leaving a Baltimore park following a game of pick-up basketball. Plaintiffs alleged Cirello used vulgar language while ordering them to leave the park or he would "go through (their) pockets." When Clowney voiced the intent to get the officer's badge number to report his behavior, Cirello responded by pepper-spraying Clowney and arresting him. Within minutes, the other three men were also arrested, as well as a fifth man, 45-year-old Rudolph Hill, who claimed to be an innocent bystander in the incident. A young woman who witnessed the encounter supported the Plaintiffs' version of events. Cirello, on the other hand, insisted the Plaintiffs pulled a knife on him and tried to stab him. Hill, the innocent bystander, remained in jail for nearly six months before being acquitted of assault on a police officer ...

On August 30, 2005, a federal jury in Ohio awarded Michelle Black-Hosang $100,000 in compensatory damages, as well as $250,000 in punitive damages for her unlawful arrest by Sergeant James Mendenhall of the Ohio State Police. Additionally, Black-Hosang is seeking more than $100,000 in attorney's fees.

The Plaintiff's arrest was ...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has held that prosecutors, parole board members and state agencies are entitled to absolute immunity for participating in or making parole decisions. The Court’s ruling comes in the case of Liza Brown, who appealed the California federal district court’s grant of summary judgment.

Brown’s claim stemmed from the Ninth Circuit decision granting her habeas petition and ordering her release on parole. Brown v. Poole, 337 F.3d 1155 (9th Cir. 2003). During a plea agreement to Brown’s sentence for first degree murder for shooting her husband, the prosecutor said that if Brown avoided disciplinary action while in prison, she would be released on parole in “half of the 15 years” that was her minimum sentence.

Despite being disciplinary action free, Brown was denied parole after having served more than seven and a half years. She alleged in her lawsuit that the prosecutors intentionally interfered with their contractual obligation when they recommended during her parole hearing that she be denied release.

The Ninth Circuit joined its “sister circuits in holding that prosecutors should be afforded absolute immunity for parole recommendations, because parole decisions are a continuation of the sentencing process.” The Court also cited its precedent ...