October 29, 2018Mom and four-yera-old son sue DHS to reunite after seven months of separation under Trump's border policy A Salvadoran mother whose son was taken from her by U.S. immigration officials at the...
February 25, 2019Court hearing Wednesday over torture at Abu Ghraib This Wednesday, February 27, 2019 at 10 a.m., the Center for Constitutional Rights will argue before the United States District Court for the...
July 29, 2019Victory! Federal judge blocks Trump's new asylum rules On Wednesday, representing a number of grassroots immigration service providers, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the ACLU, and the SPLC...
In 2017, the Prosecution of the International Criminal Court (ICC), filed a request to open an investigation into alleged crimes in and related to the armed conflict in Afghanistan, including those...
Updated: November 25, 2019
February 10, 2020Muslims put on No-Fly List by FBI agents as coercion tactic are asking SCOTUS to allow lawsuit to go forward [caption align="right"] [/caption] On Wednesday, Muslim men who were placed or kept on the...
Formosa Taking Emergency Appeal to Stop Prayer Event Community Members Previously Threatened With Arrest for Visiting Ancestors’ Graves June 18, 2020, Convent, Louisiana – Today, Judge Emile R. St...
Marsha Scaggs is 56 years old and is currently imprisoned at the State Correctional Institution at Cambridge Springs in Pennsylvania. Marsha is serving a Death By Incarceration sentence (more commonly known as Life Without Parole) after being convicted of felony murder. Marsha was prosecuted after an altercation with the victim in her case resulted in her co-defendant killing the victim; she was not responsible for the killing nor did she have any intention for that to happen. She was 23 years old at the time. Marsha has been incarcerated since 1987 and has spent over 30 years—more than half of her life—in prison. She is a plaintiff in Scott v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, a lawsuit that argues that Pennsylvania's mandatory life sentences without the eligibility for parole for felony murder are unconstitutional.
When asked what she wants the outside world to know about people serving life sentences, she said, "We are human beings who have made mistakes but we are not defined by those mistakes. There are lifers that have taken the necessary steps to redeem ourselves and if given the opportunity, we will rise to the occasion and be role models."
Marsha wants to be released from prison. She wants the chance to use the certification and degree that she worked so hard to get while incarcerated. During her incarceration, she has lost loved ones on the outside. She wants to be free to be able to spend time with friends and family outside of the prison walls. Marsha says she also wants the chance to do things that many people on the outside take for granted. She wants to get a job, pay bills, and do her taxes.
Marsha says that aging in prison is, "no picnic...you do not get the proper medical attention that is needed, and the more you age, you can see and feel your body deteriorate. It's like a loss of life emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually."
The Center for Constitutional Rights is looking for a part-time (10 hours a week) Social Media Communications Assistant. This temporary position (no more than 6 months) will help with producing and...
Updated: May 4, 2021
March 19, 2021, New York – On the 18th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement: Eighteen years after the United States invaded...
April 25, 2022Money belongs to the people of Afghanistan, groups say in legal brief
Pages