Representative Cases
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA)
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We represent incarcerated individuals who have been abused or neglected by the officers and institutions responsible for their safety. Correctional staff use excessive force, ignore medical emergencies, or allow violence to go unchecked. And in turn the people inside those walls have no one holding their keepers accountable. We litigate to hold both individual officers and the institutions that enabled their misconduct accountable.
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MENEFEE LAW is currently litigating against the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) and investigating additional cases to bring against the ADOC. Journalists described the system’s conditions as the “[s]hameful neglect and abuse of thousands of Alabamians,” a federal district judge found its provision of psychiatric medical care to be “horrendously inadequate,” the Department of Justice stated plainly that “Alabama is incarcerating prisoners under conditions that pose a substantial risk of serious harm and death,” and a Jefferson County judge called Alabama’s state prisons “third world prisons.”
Prisoner deaths in ADOC custody reached an all time high: In 2022, ADOC recorded approximately 270 deaths in custody, at the time the highest ever. In 2023, 325 people died in ADOC prisons. The death rate in Alabama prisons has climbed to five times the national average. -
Lawsuit on behalf of incarcerated activist Plaintiff Robert Earl Council aka Kinetik Justice. Mr. Council is an incarcerated organizer and activist who co-founded the Free Alabama Movement. FAM resists and educates others within the ADOC to resist unconstitutional conditions and unlawful forced labor demands. Mr. Council helps incarcerated individuals access legal resources and exposes unconstitutional ADOC practices to the media. In response, Mr. Council has been subjected to long stretches of solitary confinement and has been beaten, strip searched, exposed to chemical agents, harassed, and psychologically abused by ADOC officials.
Co-counsel: Civil Rights Corps
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Menefee Law brought suit against the Alabama Department of Corrections ("ADOC") and Wexford Correctional Healthcare on behalf of Joseph Allen Renney, an Alabama man currently incarcerated at Limestone correctional facility. Mr. Renney is a diabetic who suffered a partial amputation of his left foot, including all of his left toes, after a nearly two year delay in medical attention. The delays and denials of treatment result from ADOC and Wexford’s policies of inadequate care and ADOC's understaffing and over incarceration crisis.
Co-counsel: National Police Accountability Project
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Menefee Law represented Mr. Brooks in his case against Akeem Edmonds, a correctional officer employed at Donaldson Correctional Facility. Officer Edmonds used excessive force against Mr. Brooks when removing Mr. Brooks from his cell, violating his constitutional rights. Officer Edmonds sprayed Mr. Brooks twice in the face with mace, burned Mr. Brooks’ forearms, leaving him with third-degree burns, and then sexually assaulted Mr. Brooks. Menefee Law seeks justice for Mr. Brooks and compensation for the injuries and emotional anguish Mr. Brooks has suffered.
Co-counsel: Dentons Sirorte, Birmingham, AL
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Plaintiff Eddie Richmond II filed this lawsuit on behalf of his son, Eddie Richmond III, against the Alabama Department of Corrections, its employees, and the department’s medical contractor. Eddie Richmond III died as the result of an epidemic of drug use, fatal drug overdoses, and the complete breakdown of security and supervision within Fountain Correctional Facility in November 2022.
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Menefee Law brought suit against the Alabama Department of Corrections ("ADOC") on behalf of Melvin Ray aka Bennu Hannibal Ra-Sun. Mr. Ray is an incarcerated activist who co-founded the Free Alabama Movement (FAM) and has striven to expose ADOC corruption and unconstitutional practices. On multiple occasions in the spring of 2024, student protesters gathered outside St. Clair Correctional Facility and voiced their support for FAM and Mr. Ray and their opposition to the ADOC’s ongoing civil rights violations that have killed hundreds of Alabama citizens. In retaliation, on four occasions while student protesters were outside the facility, ADOC correctional officers placed Mr. Ray in handcuffs and in a holding cage until the protesters left. Mr. Ray filed this lawsuit to vindicate his First Amendment right to be free from retaliation.
PRISONERS’ RIGHTS
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We represent people who have been punished for exercising their First Amendment rights. When a government official retaliates against someone for speaking out, filing a grievance, or exercising their right to protest — whether that person is an employee, an incarcerated individual, or a private citizen — it isn't just an isolated wrong. It sends a message that speaking up comes at a cost. We take those cases and hold the officials responsible.
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On April 25, 2024, a third-year Emory Law student stood off Emory's Quad filming police clear a pro-Palestinian encampment — footage he began recording after hearing an officer had his knee on a protester's neck. An officer pointed him out for arrest and he spent thirty hours in the DeKalb County Jail. We allege that Emory's then-President ordered police onto campus within ninety minutes of the protest forming — bypassing the university's own policy requiring arrest be a last resort. This demonstrated animus toward the protesters' pro-Palestinian viewpoint and was a stark contrast to how Emory handled similar protests in the preceding year without a single arrest.
First Amendment Retaliation
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Foreign governments are generally immune from suit in U.S. courts under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) — but the statute carves out specific exceptions, including for commercial activity, expropriation of property, and torts committed in the United States. We bring FSIA claims within these exceptions on behalf of individuals and organizations seeking accountability from foreign states.
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Menefee Law represents a Guyanese-American businessman and his U.S. aviation companies in a suit against the Republic of Guyana, its state airport corporation, and the airport's CEO. After Guyanese officials allegedly conspired with a convicted drug trafficker to seize our client's aircraft hangar and two aircraft in Georgetown — chaining the hangar doors shut in 2017 and refusing to return the property despite U.S. Embassy-mediated negotiations. We're pursuing claims under the FSIA's expropriation and commercial activity exceptions, along with breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and negligence. The complaint also alleges our client survived two attempted assassinations tied to the same officials, giving rise to a separate claim under the Torture Victim Protection Act.
ABOVE: Families protest the loss of their loved ones at the state Capitol in March 2023. Photo credit: John H. Glenn, Alabama Political Reporter