Drug Induced Homicide Defense Toolkit
Even if a claim is not available, consider how your choices of person-affirming language and storytelling can highlight and challenge racist biases and assumptions. As discussed in Section VIII below, efforts to humanize your client will, of course, make for a more zealous defense, and they may increase the chances of a more equitable outcome. B. Denial of MOUD to inmates may violate the ADA or Rehabilitation Act Considering that DIH defendants are not the “kingpins” allegedly targeted by the statutes but rather people overwhelmingly likely to suffer OUD themselves, the criminal justice system's tragic failure to provide medications for OUD such as methadone or Suboxone is a critical problem for DIH enforcement.220 If a carceral facility fails to provide MOUD or deprives an inmate suffering from OUD from continuing to receive previously-prescribed pharmacotherapy, some courts are beginning to hold that the failure may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (local and state facilities) or the Rehabilitation Act (federal facilities). For example, in Pesce v. Coppinger, the U.S. District Court in Boston issued an injunction requiring Massachusetts carceral facilities to provide methadone to the
https://www.wicourts.gov/publications/guides/docs/munibenchbook.pdf. The margins contain governing case law for each prong of analysis. See also the resources available from the NACDL, Racial Disparity Resources (April 25, 2019), https://www.nacdl.org/Content/RacialDisparityResources. 220
See discussion in Sections V.C and VI.B.
Version Date July 2021 – Check https://ssrn.com/abstract=3265510 for most current edition
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