Litigation

The State of Florida sentenced Sadik Baxter, at the age of 26, to spend the rest of his life in prison without possibility of parole for an accidental death that he did not cause, intend, or play any role in bringing about. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting alongside Mr. Baxter to bring an end to extreme sentences for felony murder that are wildly out of proportion to the person’s culpability.

An Oregon city called Grants Pass enacted “public camping” laws that banned people who are homeless from using blankets, sleeping bags, or any “material used for bedding purposes” to sleep anywhere in public in the city, under penalty of hefty fines and potential jail time. A class of involuntarily homeless residents of the city challenged the laws, and in support of the class, the MacArthur Justice Center represented four criminal law and punishment scholars as amici curiae. Our brief argued that these ordinances violated the Eighth Amendment because it is not lawful to punish someone who has done nothing wrong, like the people in Grants Pass who must sleep outside because they have nowhere else to go.

Can a police officer who frames an innocent person be held accountable in court? Before the MacArthur Justice Center won the landmark Supreme Court decision in Thompson v. Clark, the answer across most of the country was no: Once the innocent person got the false charges against them dismissed, the police officer who fabricated or falsified evidence against them was immune from a civil lawsuit. We took that issue all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won.

Richard Glossip is scheduled to be executed by the state of Oklahoma on May 18, 2023, despite overwhelming evidence of improper state conduct in his case. The MacArthur Justice Center has filed an amicus brief on behalf of Oklahoma Rep. Kevin McDugle, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take Mr. Glossip's case.

The right to a public trial is fundamental to our constitutional system. It’s a right that belongs to the public itself, protected by the First Amendment, and to a criminal defendant, protected by the Sixth Amendment. Given the importance of the public trial right, it’s no surprise that years ago the Supreme Court held that...

Twenty-five years ago, Riley Briones, Jr., was sentenced to die in prison for a crime he committed as a child. In the decades since, he earned a GED, married the mother of his child, began counseling younger prisoners, and maintained a spotless prison record, without a single writeup, not even for failing to make his...

UPDATE: In January 2022, the Supreme Court denied our petition for certiorari. The MacArthur Justice Center continues to fight against the unconstitutional practice of sentencing defendants based on acquitted conduct. Esteban Gaspar-Felipe was tried before a jury on charges of illegally reentering the United States and for “transportation of illegal aliens.” The jury convicted him...

UPDATE: In October 2021, the Supreme Court denied our petition for certiorari. The MacArthur Justice Center continues to fight against the unconstitutional practice of sentencing defendants based on acquitted conduct. Erick Allen Osby was indicted on seven charges, convicted of two, and acquitted of five. But his sentence was exactly the same as it would...

New Orleanians who overpaid for bail bond services sued bail bond companies for illegally overcharging tens of thousands of low-income New Orleans families, who were forced to turn to these companies to secure freedom for their loved ones. Although a Louisiana law specified that bail bond companies could only charge twelve percent of the bond...

Alan Beaman spent over a decade in prison after being wrongfully convicted of the 1993 murder of his ex-girlfriend. The MacArthur Justice Center represents Mr. Beaman in his lawsuit against the City of Normal and the three former Normal police officers who orchestrated the wrongful conviction.