Civil Rights

Tennessee brings back the electric chair!  I could not believe that my state would return to what I consider a barbaric practice. I am not opposed to the death penalty in all cases. However, having actually seen Tennessee’s last electrocution on September, 12 2007, I think we should not reintroduce such archaic torture as a […]

Today, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overruled an award of $200,000 to a pregnant inmate who was shackled immediately before and after giving birth.  Villegas v. Metro. Gov’t of Nashville, -F.3d-, No. 11-6031 (6th Cir. March 4, 2013).  The appeals court simply decided that the case should have been decided by a jury rather […]

Police were contacted by an anonymous caller in May of 2009 who stated that an “armed party” was at a Covington motel.  No information regarding the description of the weapon, the ethnicity, gender, or physical appearance of the suspect(s), or the clothing worn was provided.  Six different officers responded to the dispatch and immediately upon […]

Darren T. Ring, a 35-year-old resident of the City of Waverly, has had a federal civil rights lawsuit filed on his behalf in response to an alleged instance of police brutality, which I reported on in the July 2011 article “Police Beating Caught on Tape.” Ring is represented by attorney David Raybin, a distinguished member […]

Inmates that receive poor medical care for Diabetes while incarcerated have protections under State and Federal law. Inmates may bring a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 if they can establish that their constitutional rights were violated by guards or medical staff. The most common constitutional amendment implicated by inmates with diabetes is the Eighth […]