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.

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.

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.

Terry v. United States—a case before the U.S. Supreme Court—sought to correct the unfair and incorrect exclusion of low-level crack offenders from relief clearly provided by the bipartisan First Step Act, passed by Congress in 2018. The United States reversed its position in this case, and filed a brief supporting our position. The Court appointed an amicus...

In June 2021, the Supreme Court denied our petition for certiorari. The Stewart family continues their fight for justice and to hold accountable the officers who killed Luke Stewart. A cartoon of a police officer beating an unarmed civilian (caption: “protecting and serving the poop out of you”); a clip from a Chris Rock sketch...

We represent Adham Hassoun, a stateless Palestinian man who the government is trying to imprison indefinitely—potentially for the rest of his life—under the USA Patriot Act. This is the first time that the government has invoked a highly controversial provision of the PATRIOT Act that purports to allow the government to hold people in detention...