Simpson Thacher Wins Largest Jury Verdict in History for Mail Withholding, Proving Multiple Constitutional Violations
09.22.23
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On September 20, a jury found that our pro bono client’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights had been violated and awarded $475,000 for the withholding of mail. This was the largest verdict of its kind and nearly 50 times larger than any previous award for withholding mail. In a three-day jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Simpson Thacher successfully proved that a prison worker violated our pro bono client’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by unlawfully withholding his mail for nearly nine months in 2007 and 2008. Sending and receiving mail, and being able to access the courts, are First and Fourteenth Amendment rights afforded by the Constitution, even to those who are incarcerated.
The jury agreed with the Firm’s arguments that our client’s Constitutional rights were violated three different ways during the nearly nine months his mail was illegally withheld. That withholding caused our client to miss letters setting critical court deadlines to appeal and assert his innocence in his underlying conviction. Worse, he missed family letters letting him know his father was sick and dying, and that he should try to call home one last time. His father died four days before our client’s long-delayed mail was finally delivered. Moved by our client’s story, the jury decided to award $475,000, providing some recompense for the time he lost.
This win follows the Firm’s role in securing our client’s release from prison in December 2022, after persuading the court to reduce his sentence by over 30 years.
The Simpson Thacher team included Retired Partner Buzz Frahn, Counsel Jonathan Sanders and Associates Pierce MacConaghy and Hilary Wong.