I'm looking for a copy of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Edwin Gomez
1999- NO. 0473. I only came up with one source on line, and they want money.
The case is also known as Judgment of Sentence of the Court of Common
Pleas of Philadelphia County, Criminal Division, entered on November 19,
2000 at No. 9912-0473 809 A.2d 956.
The requestor provided me with the full citation for the Cassandra Shaylor article, and the article noted the name of the case in the footnotes. It is Baraldini v. Thornburgh, 884 F.2d 615 (U.S. App. D.C. 1989). The full-text is in Lexis-Nexis, but I will copy the overview below.
"OVERVIEW: Although the inmates had no particular behavior or security problems after sentencing, they were transferred to the highest security institution primarily because of their association with groups that espoused violence and assisted in prison escapes. The district court found that the bureau violated the inmates' First Amendment rights by making the transfers solely on the basis of the inmates' subversive statements and thoughts. The court reversed, holding that the district court erred in determining that the bureau violated the inmates' First Amendment rights and that the bureau properly considered the inmates' association with groups that aided in prison escapes in effectuating placement. The court found no evidence of pretext or that the bureau singled out any woman because of her left wing political convictions. The court further found that the transfers were rationally connected to a legitimate prison purpose and did not unduly restrict alternative means of exercising association rights. On de novo review, the court determined that the bureau's transfer of the inmates was not an exaggerated response to security concerns."
I quickly checked Shepherd's Citations to see if it had been overturned, and Shepherd's says "No subsequent appellate history." I am not an expert on this step, so please don't take this as proof that there was never a later case that was decided differently. It does mean, as far as I can tell, that that exact case was not appealed.
If you are near a large academic library, you can possibly get on-site access to legal resources such as Lexis Academic, which gets 8 hits for the case search: Neal v Department of Corrections. Lexis would link you to related cases and cited ones, so you could spend dozens of hours reading these.
If you are near a large public library, you could at least search major newspapers, in subscription databases such as Proquest Newspapers or Newspaper Source, to see what they have on this case. But you might want to first look in the Michigan Court of Appeals database. Searching "Party Name": neal tracy gets a listing for Docket# 281099. When you click on the hot-linked 281099, it gives a summary of actions on the case, including a note near the top: "Status: Open Remarks: trial set for 1-14-08"
In the Fielded Search Opinions, the Party search: neal tracy gets 2 hits:
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NEAL TRACY/ ALL OTHERS SIMILARLY SITUATED
253543 TRACY NEAL V DEPT OF CORRECTIONS
Release Date: 2/23/2006 Judge(s): KJ CMM PMD
Lower Court: WASHTENAW CNTY CIRCUIT COURT Lower Court No. 96-6986-CZ
COA Opinion - On Remand SCt - Per Curiam - Unpublished
Case Type: Class Action Certification Granted
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253543 TRACY NEAL V DEPT OF CORRECTIONS
Release Date: 2/10/2005 Judge(s): KJ CMM PMD
Lower Court: WASHTENAW CNTY CIRCUIT COURT Lower Court No. 96-6986-CZ
COA Opinion - Per Curiam - Unpublished
Case Type: Class Action Certification Granted
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When you click on the underlined hot linked TRACY NEAL V DEPT OF CORRECTIONS, it displays a 4 page pdf of the court's decision.
