RI Supreme Court says people serving life in prison can no longer be considered 'civilly dead' - The Providence Journal
PROVIDENCE – The state Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down as unconstitutional a century-old law declaring people serving life sentences to be dead in all respects, in terms of their civil rights.
The high court, 4-1, declared as unconstitutional the so-called civil-death law, which barred people sentenced to life from taking legal actioin state court against the state Department of Corrections or any other entities.
Represented by the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, Cody-Allen Zab and Jose Rivera argued in November that the civil death statute violated their rights to equal protection and due process under the state Constitution.
Zab and Rivera had been seeking to sue the state over alleged negligence during their incarceration at the Adult Correctional Institutions.
The court held that the “civil death” statute violated a Rhode Island Constitution provision that the court said guarantees a “fundamental right” of access to the courts.
“The civil death statute deprives those persons imprisoned at the ACI for life of their right to bring civil actions in our state courts. It is clear to us that the right infringed upon by the civil death statute is the right to seek redress for any type of injury or complaint, thereby unconstitutionally denying the plaintiffs the very right to gain access to the courts,” Justice Erin Lynch Prata wrote for the court.
Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg issued a dissenting opinion.
The suits were filed by Sonja Deyoe, who privately and as an ACLU cooperating lawyer has long challenged the civil death law, believed to be the only such law in the nation still being enforced.
“Today’s decision from the Court affirms the basic principle of our judicial system that the doors to justice shall remain open to all. I am honored to have been able to participate in these cases to help insure that all people of this state keep that sacred right,” Deyoe said in a statement.
The law invalidated by the high court Wednesday reads that “Every person imprisoned in the adult correctional institutions for life shall, with respect to all rights of property, to the bond of matrimony and to all civil rights and relations of any nature whatsoever, be deemed to be dead in all respects, as if his or her natural death had taken place at the time of conviction.”
Deyoe several years ago unsuccessfully challenged the civil law on Zab’s behalf, arguing that it wrongly barred him and others from marrying.
More to come ….
source: https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/courts/2022/03/02/ri-supreme-court-civil-death-law-people-serving-life-aci-struck-down/9342576002/
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