Wrongful Incarceration Suit Settled for $5 Million

June 29, 2004

For Immediate Release:
Contact:
Roy A. Jacobson, Spence, Shockey & McCalla, LLC, Jackson, Wyoming(307) 733-7290

JoNell Thomas, Attorney at Law, Las Vegas, Nevada (702) 471-6565

Wrongful Incarceration Suit Settled for $5 Million

Las Vegas, Nevada – Roberto Miranda, who spent fourteen years on Nevada's death row for a murder he didn't commit, has settled a civil rights lawsuit for $5 million. The settlement agreement dismisses all claims against Clark County, Nevada, the Clark County Public Defenders office, and two former members of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. On June 22, 2004 a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada signed an Entry of Dismissal with Prejudice, ending Miranda's long struggle for justice.

In 1982 Miranda was wrongfully convicted for the 1981 murder of Manuel Rodriguez Torres in Las Vegas. Miranda, a Spanish speaking refugee from Cuba, had been in the United States for less than two years when he was convicted and sentenced to die. He remained on death row for fourteen years, protesting his innocence and fighting for his release. In 1996 Miranda was released from prison after a state district court held that he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel.

Miranda filed a civil complaint in 1998, alleging that the policies of the Clark County Public Defenders office violated his civil rights. The complaint stated that the public defenders office did virtually nothing to defend him after he performed poorly on a polygraph examination by an English speaking examiner. Miranda alleged that he was assigned an inexperienced attorney who had been practicing law little more than a year and was not qualified to defend a capital murder case. The complaint also alleged that police withheld exculpatory evidence.

A federal judge dismissed the complaint, finding that Miranda could not sue the county or the public defenders office regarding his representation. Miranda appealed, at first unsuccessfully, to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. After an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit reinstated the case the defendants appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In October 2003, the Supreme Court refused to review the decision. The Court's decision means that county governments can be held liable for denying defendants effective counsel in certain situations.

Plaintiff Roberto Miranda was represented by attorneys J. Douglas McCalla, Roy A. Jacobson, Jr., and Larissa A. Ferullo, of Spence Shockey & McCalla, in Jackson, Wyoming; and JoNell Thomas, of Las Vegas, Nevada. Spence, Shockey & McCalla, founded by nationally acclaimed lawyer Gerry Spence, has successfully handled several civil rights cases concerning wrongful incarceration.