{"id":20106,"date":"2014-05-19T14:54:17","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T18:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=20106"},"modified":"2014-05-19T14:54:17","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T18:54:17","slug":"mother-of-rikers-inmate-baked-to-death-in-cell-is-suing-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=20106","title":{"rendered":"Mother of Rikers inmate baked to death in cell is suing NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

I find this an unbearably painful story.<\/a><\/p>\n

Jerome Murdough, a mentally ill, homeless veteran, was picked up by cops for trespassing and put into Rikers where, as the Daily News headline describes, he baked to death in his cell.<\/p>\n

His mother, Alma Murdough, is suing the City. Derek Sells<\/a>, her lawyer, said it perfectly: “As a result, someone who was arrested on a trespassing charge ended up getting the death penalty.”<\/p>\n

That’s not the first time I’ve heard that expression. In the late 1990s, I worked on a case called Pizzuto v Nassau County<\/em>. Tommy Pizzuto was stopped by a Nassau County cop who suspected he was DWI. He wasn’t; he was a recovering addict who took methadone.<\/p>\n

After a series of pro forma<\/em> courtroom appearances, the county judge threw Tommy into Nassau County jail because, if I remember, his lawyer had bumbled and had not shown up in court and it put the judge into a mood. Not Tommy’s fault.<\/p>\n

Tommy had not expected to be thrown into jail that day. Immediately he began to insist that he was without his methadone and needed it.<\/p>\n

That annoyed the prison personnel. Some of them went into his cell and beat Tommy badly. When he was eventually taken to Nassau County Medical Center, he lay on a gurney unattended for a while, and died.<\/p>\n

Tommy, too, had been arrested on a misdemeanor and got a death sentence.<\/p>\n

Awful expression, especially because it’s accurate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I find this an unbearably painful story. Jerome Murdough, a mentally ill, homeless veteran, was picked up by cops for trespassing and put into Rikers where, as the Daily News headline describes, he baked to death in his cell. His … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[337],"tags":[161,213],"class_list":["post-20106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-news","tag-civil-rights-lawsuits","tag-personal-injury-lawsuits"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t