State Supreme Court: ‘Civil death’ law is unconstitutional

By MARK PRATT
Associated Press

An archaic Rhode Island law that says prison inmates serving life sentences are considered civilly dead in terms of their civil rights has been ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court. The court in a landmark decision released Wednesday said the statute denies inmates of a fundamental right of being able to bring civil actions in state courts. The 1909 law says inmates serving a life term at the state prison are deemed dead with respect to property rights, the bond of matrimony and other civil rights as if they had actually died when convicted. Two inmates who claimed they were injured in prison challenged the law.