Huff Post: Almost Everyone In This Neighborhood Has Been Locked Up At Some Point

From Huffington Post 

Welcome to Beecher Terrace, a housing project in Louisville, Kentucky where nearly everyone has been to jail or prison.

"Prison State," the second half of Frontline's "Locked Up In America" series premiering Tuesday night on PBS, follows four residents of Beecher Terrace as they make their way in and out of the corrections system. 

About 1 in 6 adult residents of the housing complex will cycle in and out of prison each year, according to Frontline. Filmmaker Dan Edge said that all of the current and former inmates he met from the neighborhood told the same story: "Basically, once you've been to prison once, it is hugely challenging not to get sucked back in."

Kentucky had one of the country's fastest-growing prison populations between 1999 and 2009, according to the Pew Center on the States, though the state's rate of serious crime did not increase during that period.

Complete article and a preview of tonight's Frontline episode 

Upcoming on Frontline: Prison State

What to Watch: In Prison State, airing online and on air starting April 29, FRONTLINE follows Kentucky’s attempts to reform its criminal justice program through those it impacts most.

In Latest Reform, Kentucky Softens Approach to Juvenile Offenders

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) today plans to sign into law a package of reforms to the state’s juvenile justice program on Friday, the latest step in Kentucky’s effort to overhaul its criminal justice system.

The state is one of several nationwide that has begun to look at new approaches to criminal justice, after decades of spending millions on incarceration. While the motive is largely financial, the impact has begun to be felt, particularly in African-American communities, who are disproportionately represented among 2.2 million people currently incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails nationwide.

Kentucky has an incarceration problem. Although crime rates have remained low, the state prison population has far outpaced the national average, rising 45 percent in the decade ending in 2009, compared to 13 percent nationwide. Kentucky’s juvenile detention has followed a similar trend even as youth crime has declined.

Complete article and Trailer

C-J article on Prosecutorial Misconduct in Louisville

Prosecutor's cases to be reviewed after mistrial declared in Hammond case

Judge Angela McCormick Bisig declared a mistrial in the murder trial of Dejuan Hammond, a day after Hammond's defense team complained of "prosecutorial misconduct," saying investigators have for five years had a summary of an interview with Hammond's former girlfriend that they had failed to turn over.

Defense attorneys accused Van De Rostyne of not only not turning over the evidence, but of purposefully hiding it and keeping it from attorneys because it contained exculpatory information....

[C]urrent prosecutors on the case acknowledged it appeared the evidence - a summary of an interview with Hammond's former girlfriend - had been tampered with and withheld inappropriately.

"It's one of the more disappointing experiences, to be honest with you, that I've had in the nearly 30 years I've been prosecuting here in this community," said Jim Lesousky, assistant commonwealth attorney.

Complete article 

Louisville jail signs up exiting inmates for Obamacare - Courier-Journal

Louisville Metro Corrections last week began holding daily sign-ups for exiting inmates, and Garcia was among those qualifying for the newly expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

It's part of a growing push nationwide by prisons and jails trying to take advantage of expanded health care to curb rapidly rising medical costs in a setting where many are poor, unhealthy and uninsured.

Their motivation is twofold: Expensive inmate hospitalizations lasting more than 24 hours can be billed to Medicaid, cutting local and state costs. And it provides coverage to a population whose high rates of chronic disease, substance abuse and mental illness often land them back in jail, where they are expensive to treat.

Complete Louisville Courier-Journal article

KYCOA - Mickey - Search incident to Arrest and Automobile Exception

Mickey v.Commonwealth, 2012-CA-000723-MR

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

Holds that the arrest of the driver of a car for driving on a suspended license was illegal because a new statute already in effect required a citation only. The arrest led to the smell of marijuana after the officer removed the defendant from the car, and a subsequent search finding additional contraband was held to be improper. An interesting wrinkle was that after the defendant was placed in the police cruiser it was determined that there were warrants out for his arrest. The court held that the search would still have been invalid under Gant since the defendant was already in the police cruiser when they found out about the warrants.  

This was a conditional guilty plea based on a motion to suppress filed by Herb West of the Lexington office. Gene Lewter handled the direct appeal. 

Contributed by Shannon Smith

KYSC - Galloway - Insufficient Evidence Assault 4th Third Offense

Darryl Galloway v. Commonwealth, KSC, 12-SC-701, 3/20/14, to be published- The Kentucky Supreme Court held there was insufficient evidence to prove fourth degree assault third offense. The Court held the statutory requirement that the two prior assault convictions be against family members or members of an unmarried couple makes them essential elements of that offense. Thus the testimony of the detective that Mr. Galloway had two prior convictions for domestic violence was insufficient, and to sustain a conviction the Commonwealth would have had to present “proof of the identity of the victim and the nature of the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim.”  

James Rhorer represented Mr. Galloway at trial and Kathleen Schmidt won the appeal.

Contributed by Susan Balliet

KYSC - Southworth - 404(b)

Donald Southworth v. Commonwealth, 2012-SC-000179, 3/20/14,  To be Published.

     The Kentucky Supreme Court reversed and remanded Southworth’s conviction and life sentence for the alleged murder of his wife Umi. DNA of an unknown individual was located inside the victim, and the Commonwealth introduced evidence--over defense objection— permitting testimony regarding Southworth’s prior act of placing of another man’s semen into someone—on the ground it was a signature act or modus operandi "because it was so bizarre.” The majority of the Court found the  evidence was irrelevant because the act of semen insertion did not involve a “unique capacity, skill, or knowledge of the defendant.” Also, there was no proof this was the method used to put the semen in Umi’s body. The admission of this other-acts evidence violated KRE 404(b) and prejudiced Southworth.  

Mr. Southworth was represented by Tucker Richardson and Russel J. Baldani at trial court and by Shannon Renee Dupree and Jason Apollo Hart on appeal. 

Contributed by Susan Balliet