NEWS (2/​16/​21) — Pennsylvania: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has rein­stat­ed death-row exoneree Roderick Johnson’s law­suit seek­ing dam­ages for his place­ment in soli­tary con­fine­ment for almost twen­ty years. Johnson was sen­tenced to death in 1998 in Berks County, Pennsylvania. He was not released from soli­tary con­fine­ment on death row even after his con­vic­tion and sen­tence had been vacat­ed, and the gov­ern­ment was con­test­ing his enti­tle­ment to a new tri­al. The appeals court con­clud­ed that the dis­trict court had erred in dis­miss­ing Johnson’s due process claim, reaf­firm­ing its ear­li­er hold­ing that ​“inmates on death row whose death sen­tences have been vacat­ed have a due process right to avoid con­tin­ued place­ment in solitary confinement.” 

Johnson was freed in 2020 after a tri­al court barred his retri­al because of ​“egre­gious” pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. His law­suit against the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections can still go for­ward as he is seek­ing mon­e­tary dam­ages, a declara­to­ry judg­ment that the state vio­lat­ed his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights, and lifetime therapy. 

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