Word.
Posted on 10/18/2009 12:51:03 PM PDT by BBell
Thomas Lee White spent a year in prison for another man's mistake. But White's own error has left him with little legal recourse.
A federal appellate court ruled late last month that White -- who was jailed in New Orleans for public drunkenness, mistakenly identified and then lost in the state penal system for a full year after Hurricane Katrina -- has no right to a federal civil lawsuit because he didn't file the suit fast enough.
He is one of countless former jail inmates who appear to have been deprived of their constitutional right to due process in the disarray following the storm.
Another man spent seven months in jail without a court hearing for looting his own home. Still another, jailed for his alleged role in a fight, spent 13 months incarcerated without ever speaking to an attorney or judge.
A similarly Kafkaesque scenario is at the center of "Zeitoun," a recently released nonfiction book by Dave Eggers about the post-Katrina travails of New Orleans painting contractor Abdulrahman Zeitoun. The contractor, who was arrested on his own property and accused of looting, spent a month in prison without being able to contact anyone, leading his wife to conclude he must have died.
Four years later, their stories, like Thomas Lee White's, continue to trickle out. And, if they sued at all, their civil lawsuits continue to linger.
--- Case of mistaken identity ---
White, 41, formerly of New Orleans, filed his federal suit against local criminal justice officials 13 months after his release from the state prison system, missing the filing's deadline by about a month. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upheld an earlier district court's decision that White had no recourse because he filed late. A claim of
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
I hate to post and run but I must go to work shortly.
Funny we don’t have those kind of problems in Florida.
Perhaps, I was lucky as I returned to NOLA while my neighborhood was still “Off Limits” and removed stuff from the house. All the while that National Guard on NOPD would pass my house every ten minutes and never gave me any trouble.
I wonder what it was about me that did not cause the Guard or NOPD to suspect me of looting?
We saw an elderly lady being roughed up because she didn’t want to surrender her firearm.
The entire NO situation, played out on national TV was a sickening display of avarice, corruption and depravity.
Stuck on stupid doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Which is why I have no use for the “heroic” republican governor of La. People were attacked by thug police, doors kicked in and legally owned firearms stolen from law-abiding citizens. Nothing was said, nothing was done. Another RINO coward.
we all saw the looters
Maybe that’s because Mary Blanco, a Democrat, was governor during Katrina.
Word.
Katrina happened in 2005.
Gov Jindal was elected in 2007.
Prior to that a Dem was Gov.
here in Florida I saw signs that looters would be shot.
didn’t see any looters.
Very creative and to the point. No need for Madison Avenue Advertising here.
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