Federal judges will be limited from enhancing defendants’ sentences based on conduct a jury acquitted them of, a practice that has drawn condemnation from a wide range of civil liberties groups, lawmakers, and jurists. The U.S. Sentencing Commission, a bipartisan panel that creates guidelines for the federal judiciary, voted unanimously Wednesday to adopt an amendment […]
Is it cruel and unusual to subject an incarcerated person to sleep deprivation for years? That’s a question it has taken federal courts more than a decade to answer. On March 22, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reinstated Texas inmate Michael Garrett’s 11-year-long-and-still-running lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, […]
Texas woman charged with murder:Â Near the border, a Texas woman, Lizelle Gonzalez, faced a murder charge (and two nights in jail) for self-inducing an abortion in 2022. The charges were dropped. Now Gonzalez is suing the prosecutors in federal court, seeking $1 million in damages due to the harm she suffered from both the initial […]