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Dead but alive: Two convicted killers in RI fight to get their rights back

Source: , Posted On:   14 May 2021

(WJAR) — “There’s a certain amount of dignity that you are entitled to just because you breathe," says Attorney Sonja Deyoe.

That’s one of the arguments Deyoe is bringing to a court case filed by the ACLU two years ago, that a federal judge recently ruled could move forward.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of two convicted killers, Joshua Davis and James Lombardi, is challenging the constitutionality of a century-old law in Rhode Island called “The Civil Death Act,” which strips life in prison inmates of their civil rights.

“They can’t marry. There is at least an argument that they can’t hold property,” Sonja Deyoe, a cooperating attorney on the case said. “They are not allowed to share in any of the benefits that their spouses may have,”

They also can’t sue the Department of Corrections, which is at the crux of the lawsuit.

Lombardi is serving a life sentence for murdering 29-year-old Krystal Boswell, then burying her in Cranston. According to court documents, he wants to sue the prison for negligence after he cut his leg on a sharp edge in his cell.

The other inmate named in the lawsuit, Joshua Davis, is doing life for kidnapping, molesting and murdering an 8-year-old girl from Woonsocket. Deyoe tells me he wants to sue for medical malpractice, after a nurse injected him with insulin using a dirty needle.

Attorney Bethany Macktaz was the lead prosecutor on Davis’ murder case and doesn’t think he should have the right to sue the prison.

“He has suffered no injuries, no harm, no medical problems. He wants to sue because he is emotionally distressed because a dirty needle was used on him? I think that’s ridiculous, quite frankly. He will never walk out of those prison gates a free man in his life, and so what is the purpose of allowing him to sue the Department of Corrections for a tort?," says Macktaz.

Macktaz also believes the Civil Death Act will be upheld in court.

“I believe our legislature over 100 years ago amended the statute, and I think the Supreme Court of our state has said time and time again that it is constitutional," said Macktaz.

Judy Boswell, the mother of the woman killed by Lombardi, sees the statute as part of his punishment for taking her daughter’s life.

“For anyone to even consider this is outrageous. The answer is easy, he took away another human's life and that human was my daughter, Krystal Boswell," says Boswell.

Deyoe acknowledged that Davis and Lombardi have committed heinous crimes, but says this lawsuit isn’t about them or the crimes committed, it’s about basic human rights and will affect inmates serving life sentences in Rhode Island for years to come.

“We are not saying that they shouldn’t be locked up, we are not saying that they should not serve their sentences, we are not saying that those things shouldn’t apply to them. What we are saying is that they shouldn’t be in a place where essentially the state can starve them, they can deny them medical care, they can subject them to the worst of conditions and have that be OK,” she said.

Deyoe also pointed out that one day, some of the over 200 inmates currently serving life sentences in Rhode Island may be eligible for parole.

Rhode Island is one of the only places in the U.S. that still has a civil death law in place, other than New York and the Virgin Islands.

It was first enacted in the 1950s.

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