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APPELLATE
Washington Associate Billy JacksonWins Appeal for Client Sentenced
as a Youth to Life Imprisonment
Associate
Billy Jackson
, under the supervision of partner
Steffen Johnson
,
secured a victory in a Seventh Circuit appeal involving a client who, at age 16,
was sentenced to 100 years in prison for homicide without the possibility of
early release. The case centered on the scope of a new juvenile-sentencing
rule announced in
Miller v. Alabama
, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012), which “require[s]” a
sentencing judge imposing punishment on a juvenile homicide offender “to take
into account how children are different, and how those differences counsel against
irrevocably sentencing them to a lifetime in prison.” The question on appeal was
whether
Miller
could be applied retroactively. The panel ordered a stay in the
district court so that the Illinois courts could decide that issue and also have the
first opportunity to determine whether the sentencing court violated
Miller
. In so
doing, the panel strongly suggested that, under Illinois precedent, the new rule is
retroactive and made clear that the sentencing court “utterly failed to consider that
‘children are different.’”
San Francisco Associate JoonOhWins Appeal for InmateWhose
ClaimsWereDismissed Based on Court’s Reviewof MediaMaterials
San Francisco associate
Joon Oh
, with supervision and support from partners
John
Schreiber
,
Erin Ranahan
,
Ian Eisner
, and
Linda Coberly
, obtained a victory in the
Seventh Circuit for an inmate who filed a civil rights complaint against the City of
Chicago and police superintendent, alleging that police officers used excessive force
while in the process of arresting him. The appeal centered on newspaper accounts of
the arrest that the district court consulted via the internet before dismissing the lawsuit
pursuant to a screening of the complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A. The panel found that
the complaint was not factually or legally frivolous because a reasonable inference
could be drawn from the complaint that the plaintiff was shot multiple times by stun
guns while he was subdued and that the incident caused him harm. The panel further
explained that any reliance on the newspaper accounts by the district court is an abuse
of discretion because “the complaint is the entire record of the case” and would be
“unjustifiable, no matter how deferential our review.”
Billy Jackson
Joon Oh
…the sentencing court
“utterly failed to
consider that ‘children are different.’”
“the complaint is the entire record of
the case and [review of newspaper
accounts] would be
unjustifiable, no
matter how deferential our review.”