Florida Law Change

Identifying Your Claim: Common Eighth Amendment Violations for LWOP Inmates For those serving Life Without Parole (LWOP), the sentence is the punishment, not the conditions of confinement. The Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishments” protects your fundamental right to humane treatment, regardless of your sentence. Understanding how to identify a valid legal claim is the first step toward challenging inhumane conditions. Below are the most common types of Eighth Amendment violations faced by LWOP inmates. Failure to Protect Prison officials have a constitutional duty to protect you from violence from other inmates or staff. A valid claim requires proving you faced a “substantial risk of serious harm” and that officials knew of this risk but acted with “deliberate indifference.” Known Threats:  A threat is “known” if you have personally and specifically informed an officer of a credible threat, if there is a history of violence between you and another person,...

Before You File - The Critical First Steps You’ve decided to fight back against an unconstitutional condition. That takes courage. But before you can present your case to a judge, you must win a battle within the prison system itself. This chapter is about that battle. It is the most tedious, frustrating, yet absolutely critical part of the entire process. If you skip this, a federal judge will almost certainly throw your case out without even looking at its merits. Exhaust, Exhaust, Exhaust! The Non-Negotiable Rule The number one reason federal courts dismiss lawsuits from incarcerated people is  failure to exhaust administrative remedies.  This is not a suggestion; it is a mandatory requirement under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). What It Means:  You must completely finish the entire grievance process offered by the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC)  before  you file your lawsuit in federal court. The Logic (from the Court's Perspective): ...

Florida’s life-without-parole law reform Here’s a deeper dive into specific aspects of Florida’s life-without-parole (LWOP) laws and reform efforts:   1. Juvenile LWOP Reforms After Miller and Graham Florida initially resisted retroactively applying the Supreme Court’s rulings ( Miller v. Alabama , 2012; Graham v. Florida , 2010), leading to litigation: Atwell v. State (2016) – Florida Supreme Court ruled Miller must apply retroactively. SB 7062 (2017) – Created resentencing hearings for juvenile LWOP cases, allowing judges to impose 25-to-life sentences instead of automatic LWOP. Jones v. Florida (2020) – Florida Supreme Court reversed course, ruling that Miller did not require jury unanimity for resentencing, angering reform advocates. Current Status: ~200+ juvenile lifers have been resentenced since 2017, but many remain imprisoned. Prosecutors can still seek LWOP for juveniles if they argue the defendant is "irreparably corrupt." 2. Attempts to Expand Parole or Resente...

The Foundation - Is Your Sentence Actually "Cruel and Unusual"? The Eighth Amendment prohibits "cruel and unusual punishments." For centuries, this was interpreted to ban only certain methods of punishment (e.g., torture, drawing and quartering). However, in the 20th century, the Supreme Court began to interpret it more dynamically, ruling that the amendment "must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society" ( Trop v. Dulles , 1958). Today, a punishment can be "cruel and unusual" in two primary ways: The  What : The Punishment Itself:  The nature of the punishment is forbidden for a specific class of offenders or crimes. Example:  The death penalty for a person who committed a non-homicide crime ( Kennedy v. Louisiana ). Example:  The death penalty for an individual with intellectual disability ( Atkins v. Virginia ) or a juvenile ( Roper v. Simmons ). The  How : The Sentencing Process:  Th...