ICAP represents plaintiffs across Oklahoma subject to an unlawful statewide scheme to fund the court system and other public services by extorting, arresting, and jailing poor people due to exorbitant fees resulting from traffic, misdemeanor, and felony offenses; plaintiffs in Hamblen County, Tennessee in a class-action suit demanding an end to cash bail systems that systematically jail presumptively innocent people solely because they are impoverished; and plaintiffs challenging the pretrial detention system in Prince George’s County, Maryland, that allows the jail to decide who is incarcerated prior to trial. ICAP also represents an incarcerated individual who is suing a federal prison guard who assaulted him when he was in restraints.  We also represented a wrongly convicted man who successfully held the Baltimore City Police Department liable for officer misconduct, as well as a prisoner challenging the state of Arizona’s approach to imposing the death penalty.

Our Work

• 11/9/23 – Filed an opposition to Defendants’ second renewed motion for summary judgment in the District of New Mexico in Torres v. Madrid
• 10/23/23 – Filed a brief in opposition to defendants’ motion to dismiss in Rohrer v. City of Gastonia
• 3/15/23 – Sent a letter to the Mississippi Supreme Court’s Rules Committee on Criminal Practice and Procedure on behalf of former federal prosecutors urging adoption of a rule change that would provide defense counsel to indigent defendants in the period between initial appearance and indictment
• 8/26/22 – Filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to to reverse the death sentence of David Brown after Louisiana failed to disclose a statement directly implicating two other people, but not Brown, in the murder of a prison guard
• 3/11/22 – Filed a brief in the First Circuit challenging Massachusetts’ improper use of solitary confinement
• 2/17/22 – Sent a letter to the Department of Justice requesting a limit to its pursuit of life sentences for juvenile offenders and the creation of a committee to review all potential juvenile life sentences
• 2/15/22 – Filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to review a challenge to Texas’s improper use of solitary confinement
• 6/11/21 – Filed a brief in the Supreme Court challenging a rule applied in the majority of circuits that thwarts a federal constitutional claim of unlawful seizure pursuant to legal process (also known as malicious prosecution) when the plaintiff’s underlying criminal case was dismissed before trial unless the plaintiff can establish that the dismissal showed “affirmative indications of innocence.”
• 6/8/21 – Filed a brief in the Ninth Circuit on behalf of the Fines and Fees Justice Center challenging the the city of Grants Pass, Oregon’s approach to fines as a violation of the Eighth Amendment
• 4/6/21 – Filed a letter urging the Massachusetts Supreme Court to order an investigation into police misconduct in Springfield, Massachusetts
• 2/5/21 – Filed a brief in the Washington Supreme Court challenging Seattle’s approach to fines as a violation of the Eighth Amendment
• 1/4/21 – Filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to review a rule applied in the majority of circuits that thwarts a federal constitutional claim of unlawful seizure pursuant to legal process (also known as malicious prosecution) when the plaintiff’s underlying criminal case was dismissed before trial unless the plaintiff can establish that the dismissal showed “affirmative indications of innocence.”
• 9/28/20 – Filed a brief in the Fifth Circuit challenging Texas’s improper use of solitary confinement
• 6/12/20 – Filed a a brief in the Supreme Court challenging Mississippi’s juvenile life without parole sentencing practices
• 1/17/20 – Filed a brief in the Eleventh Circuit challenging Florida’s disenfranchisement of those unable to pay criminal court debt
• 10/23/19 – Filed a brief in the Eighth Circuit challenging Arkansas’s improper use of solitary confinement
• 8/27/19 – Filed a brief in the Supreme Court challenging Virginia’s juvenile life without parole sentencing practices
• 7/5/19 – Filed a brief in the Fifth Circuit decrying prosecutorial misconduct
• 2/7/19 – Filed a brief in the Eleventh Circuit challenging Cullman County, Alabama’s approach to cash bail as an Equal Protection violation
• 1/30/19 – Filed a brief in the Fifth Circuit challenging Dallas County’s approach to cash bail as an Equal Protection violation
• 1/22/19 – Filed a brief in the Missouri Supreme Court challenging the imposition of jail board fees on indigent defendants
• 10/9/18 – Filed a brief in the California Supreme Court challenging the practice of cash bail as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment
• 9/21/18 – Wrote an op-ed explaining why a clear finding of “such irretrievable depravity that rehabilitation is impossible” is a prerequisite to imposing life without parole on juveniles
• 9/14/18 – Filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to review the improper sentencing of a Mississippi juvenile to life without parole
• 8/30/18 – Filed a brief in the Fourth Circuit on behalf of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty challenging Virginia’s practice of imprisoning the homeless for possession of alcohol
• 5/22/18 – Wrote an op-ed explaining how suppression of evidence by prosecutors leads to unfair trials
• 4/5/18 – Filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to review a Louisiana murder conviction after prosecutors failed to disclose key information
• 12/5/17 – Filed a brief on behalf of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office challenging San Francisco’s wealth-based approach to pretrial detention
• 11/20/17 – Filed a brief on behalf of current and former prosecutors challenging the City of Calhoun’s approach to cash bail as an Equal Protection violation
• 9/15/17 – Filed a brief on behalf of the Fair Punishment Project urging the Supreme Court to consider a constitutional challenge to capital punishment in light of the emerging national consensus against the death penalty
• 8/8/17 – Filed a brief on behalf of 67 current and former prosecutors challenging Harris County’s approach to cash bail as an Equal Protection violation