The VLW Blog

Eleven long-term inmates of the Virginia prison system filed a class-action lawsuit today contending that the Virginia Parole Board violates state law by refusing to consider all the factors required by law when making parole decision.
The board’s procedures violate their right to due process and amount to an ex post facto law, according to the [...]

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U.S. District Judge Glen Conrad has denied motions to dismiss excessive force and conspiracy claims filed by a former jail inmate who claims he was injured by guards at the Roanoke jail.
Relying on the touchstone cases of Twombly and Iqbal , Roanoke Sheriff Octavia Johnson argued DaVon Bell’s complaint about a pervasive pattern of excessive [...]

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DNA may be the most powerful personal identification tool available, but the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution does not require DNA testing for criminals after they are convicted, according to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Thursday’s ruling in District Attorney’s Office v. Osborne may not have a dramatic effect on the wrongly convicted, according to [...]

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The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has just made it a bit easier for inmates hoping to score with civil litigation to stay at the plate for a few more pitches.
The court has loosened the 1996 “three strikes rule.”
Under that rule, if a prisoner swings and misses in federal court three times, he may [...]

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Virginia is being cited for providing a good example on a subject that might not have occurred to you – providing kosher meals to Jewish prison inmates.
Maryland says it is adopting Virginia’s policy – and apparently its recipes – to take effect on Passover, which begins April 8.
The state is a defendant in two cases, [...]

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Two Western District federal judges say they support a proposal for a “re-entry court” where inmates returning to society regularly report on their progress in group meetings with the judges.  Both Chief U.S. District Judge James P. Jones and District Judge Samuel G. Wilson have asked the district probation office to set up a re-entry [...]

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Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court turned in rulings that, according to the pundits, indicate the court’s conservative five-justice majority is flexing its muscles.
Among other decisions, the high court voted to limit student speech in the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case, to toss an attempt by taxpayers to challenge the Bush administration’s grants to faith-based [...]

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