So far in these blog entries, I have discussed The Americans With Disabilities Act as it applies to the criminal justice system. I also discussed how it is impacting the accessibility of the “virtual world.” In this post, I want to address another one of the ADA’s most important features, the way it opens up… Read More
Then 18-year-old Arnold Day was framed by close colleagues of disgraced Cmdr Jon Burge and spent 26 years behind bars for crimes he didn’t commit In a case that epitomizes Chicago’s decades-long legacy of police framing Black youth for crimes they didn’t commit, police perjury, and the destruction of exculpatory evidence, all while allowing serious… Read More
Horace Roberts spent two decades behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit. Today, he filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Riverside County and the officers who allegedly framed him. Roberts was a forty-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran and father of two when officers of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department allegedly framed him… Read More
Guevara and other Chicago police officers used the same jailhouse informant to frame five innocent men CHICAGO – In what has become an avalanche of suits exposing the misconduct of Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara and the immeasurable harm that he and his colleagues have inflicted on citizens of Chicago, today a 19th person exonerated… Read More
SEATTLE, WA – The family of MiChance Dunlap-Gittens, a 17-year-old Black youth killed in 2017 by suburban Seattle sheriff’s deputies as they fired shots into the rear of his body, late today filed a federal lawsuit against King County, Washington and County Sheriff’s Deputies Det. Michael Garske, Sgt. Todd Miller, Det. Joseph Eshom and Det.… Read More
When the ADA was first passed in 1990, the world was a very different place, with the Internet in its early days. Since then, it has stepped into the center of everyday life: Many tasks can be done more quickly and efficiently online. While this has been a positive transformation, the law has failed to… Read More
I have been representing the criminally accused for nearly fifteen years—the entirety of my legal career. The first four years of my career were as a public defender—representing indigent Chicagoans on appeals of their criminal convictions. This included both direct appeals immediately after their convictions as well as appeals of dismissals of post-conviction or collateral… Read More
In my last post, I spoke generally about the rights of disabled detainees under the Americans with Disabilities Act, (“ADA”), and Rehabilitation Act. In this post, I want to highlight some recent settlements that enforced these rights. These examples are just a slice of what is possible, but they give a snapshot of the ADA… Read More
One Friday afternoon when I was about 10 years old, I was watching The Koz Zone on Channel 32 (WFLD, the local Fox affiliate in Chicago). The program was hosted by Rich Koz (who may be better known to some Chicago-area UHF viewers as “Svengoolie”) and came on in between the afternoon line-up of animated shows like… Read More
Mothers’ Day is meant to celebrate all of the emotions and dedication that go into nurturing our children into adulthood. One way to help alleviate a particular hardship that many mothers face in caring for their children is to help bail a mother out of jail so that she can be home to help care… Read More
