South Carolina
Initial deal struck to end prison riot suits
South Carolina prison officials said Monday they have reached the initial approval phase of a $6 million settlement to resolve dozens of lawsuits the Department of Corrections is facing following a deadly prison riot that killed seven inmates.
“We will appear in front of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority tomorrow asking for permission to move forward with a settlement in the Lee riot cases,” Department of Corrections spokesperson Chrysti Shain told The Associated Press.
The settlement was listed as the final item on the authority’s Tuesday agenda, which noted the prisons agency faces a total of 81 lawsuits filed by inmates, or on inmates’ behalf, in state and federal courts.
The 2018 riot raged for more than seven hours at Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Columbia. Most of the slain were stabbed or slashed; others appeared to have been beaten. One inmate described bodies “literally stacked on top of each other, like some macabre woodpile.”
Officials have said the violence — the worst U.S. prison riot in 25 years — began as a battle over contraband and territory. Corrections officials have blamed it in part on illegal cellphones, which Department Director Bryan Stirling has said represent the greatest security threat inside prisons because they give inmates an unmonitored way to communicate with the outside world and each other, and in some cases to wage criminal acts from behind bars.
For several months leading up to the insurrection, the AP communicated with a Lee prisoner who used a contraband cellphone to offer insight into life behind bars. Describing frequent gang fights with homemade weapons, he said prisoners roamed freely, had easy access to cellphones and drugs, and were often left to police themselves.
Just after the riots, both that inmate and an attorney who frequently works in the state’s prisons told the AP the illegal cellphones were frequently furnished by corrections officers themselves.
A person familiar with the agency’s operations backed up those notions, telling the AP delivery trucks — which were supposed to be inspected while entering prison grounds — often ferry cellphones and other contraband.
Since the riot, numerous security improvements have been implemented, including a $1 million cell door locking system to prevent future intrusions at Lee.
New measures also include perimeter netting, scanning devices and drone monitoring to shut cellphones down. Officials still are not able to fully use the cell signal-jamming technology Stirling wants, however.
Ohio
Court says state can sue VW for system tampering
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The federal Clean Air Act does not preclude Ohio from seeking its own compensation against Volkswagen over the company’s efforts to cheat U.S. diesel emissions tests, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
At issue before the court was the 2015 scandal in which the automaker was found to have rigged its vehicles to beat the tests. The company ultimately paid more than $33 billion in fines and settlements.
In the wake of the scandal, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office sued the company, alleging its conduct — affecting about 14,000 vehicles sold or leased in Ohio — violated the state’s anti-air pollution law.
A trial judge agreed with the company’s contention that federal law preempted the state law. A state appeals court sided with state Attorney General Dave Yost, who argued that the federal law doesn’t stop Ohio from suing over tampering that occurred after new cars were sold.
Once that sale occurs, the federal law preempting a state lawsuit no longer applies, Justice Pat Fischer wrote for the 6-1 majority.
“Put differently, the Clean Air Act expressly preempts only state and local laws regulating or setting vehicle emissions standards for new motor vehicles and new motor-vehicle engines,” he wrote.
A message was left with the attorney representing Volkswagen in the state Supreme Court case.
Justice Michael Donnelly dissented, writing that allowing the state to sue could undermine the enforcement power of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
He added that, “if states and municipalities are permitted to sue motor vehicle manufacturers based on admissions made when settling civil actions with the EPA, manufacturers will be deterred from making such admissions.”
Georgia
Emory University to remove slavery advocate’s name from dorm
ATLANTA (AP) — Emory University will remove the name of an antebellum slavery supporter from a dormitory and add the name of a Black judge to a classroom building as it confronts what its current president calls “a legacy of racism.”
The private university also plans memorials to the enslaved people who built its campuses in Atlanta and Oxford, Georgia, Emory President Gregory L. Fenves announced Monday.
These and other developments reflect the work of a task force of faculty, staff and community members that made suggestions in April on how to recognize the contributions of disenfranchised populations, Fenves wrote in a message to the university community.
Another committee evaluated historic names on buildings, programs and scholarships, and recommended in May that five names be removed while one new name be added.
The Longstreet-Means dormitory will be renamed Eagle Hall, Fenves said. Augustus Baldwin Longstreet wrote pro-slavery pamphlets during his tenure as Emory College president from 1839 to 1848, according to the committee’s report. His name will also be stripped from an English professorship.
Horace J. Johnson Jr.’s name will be added to Language Hall at Oxford College, a two-year Emory school that focuses on liberal arts education. In 2002, Johnson became the first Black Superior Court Judge in Georgia’s Alcovy Judicial Circuit.
The naming committee said the judge, who passed away last year, was a “pioneering and prominent African American alumnus who for many years was a sought-after and generous mentor to our diverse students of color and all backgrounds.” The building is expected to be dedicated in October.
Fenves said he will continue reviewing the committee’s recommendations to remove four other names from buildings and other campus placements. The university will also explore ways of acknowledging that it is located on Muscogee (Creek) Nation homelands.
“By understanding our history and expanding the Emory story to include voices, perspectives, and contributions that were overlooked or silenced, we are creating a deeper understanding of who we are and all we can achieve as a university,” Fenves said.
