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LPDCUpDates and Announcements!
Friday, September 03, 2004Federal inmates sue government for illegal imprisonment In a major law suit filed this week in Washington, DC, two federal prisoners claim that United States Department of Justice officials knowingly violated the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (& its amendments) & illegally extended the inmates' prison terms for over a decade. The defendants named in the law suit include the U.S. Parole Commission & individuals who have served on the Commission during the past two decades; Attorney General John Ashcroft & former Attorneys General Edwin Meese, Richard Thornburgh, William Barr, & Janet Reno; & the current Director of the Bureau of Prisons, Harley Lappin, as well as former directors J. Michael Quinlan & Kathleen Hawk Sawyer. The law suit was brought by Leonard Peltier, now serving consecutive life sentences for the alleged killing of two FBI agents on June 26, 1975; & Yorie Von Kahl, serving life plus 15 years for the alleged killing of two U.S. Marshals on February 13, 1983. After trial, undisputed evidence of government misconduct was uncovered in each of these controversial cases. The Sentencing Reform Act (SRA) was passed to address what Congress thought were inconsistent sentences imposed by different judges on different individuals convicted of the same crimes, as well as arbitrary parole decisions. A new system - one of determinate sentences - was born & the Parole Commission was abolished. At the heart of the suit is the refusal of the government to enforce Title II, Chapter II, Section 235(b)(3) of the Sentencing Reform Act. Effective on October 12, 1984, this part of the law ordered that parole dates "consistent with the applicable parole guideline" be issued to all "old system" prisoners within the following five-year period, at the end of which time (on October 11, 1989) the commission would cease to exist. On December 7, 1987, Congress enacted Public Law 100-182 which amended the SRA; repealed, in Section 2, the release criteria established by the original section 235(b)(3); & restored the release criteria under 18 U.S.C. 4206. This amendment did not restore the Parole Commission or remove its obligation to establish mandatory release dates, with sufficient time for appeal, by October 11, 1989. These changes to the law also applied only to crimes committed after the law was amended on December 7, 1987. The amendment simply did not apply to the plaintiffs or to the some 6,000 other "old system" prisoners still held by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons today. After it had technically ceased to exist, the Parole Commission claimed it needed more time to complete its work. Congress inexplicably granted a number of after- the-fact extensions, the first in 1990 & the latest in 2002. The suit claims these extensions were legally invalid & therefore inapplicable because, at the time they were made, the Parole Commission had already been abolished. The plaintiffs should have been given their release dates by October 11, 1989, minus sufficient time to exhaust appeals. Had the Parole Commission followed the congressional mandate, Peltier would have been released over 12 years ago. Lacking in any statutory authority, the U.S. Parole Commission in fact illegally extended the terms of imprisonment of both men. The failure of the Parole Commission to give release dates to Peltier & Von Kahl violated the ex post facto, Bill of Attainder, & Due Process clauses of the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs have demanded a permanent injunction preventing further misapplication of the SRA & its amendments by the government; enforcement of the rights created by the original section 235(b)(3); and, due to irreparable injuries suffered by Peltier & Von Kahl, compensatory & punitive damages as determined by a jury. Contact: Barry Bachrach, Esquire; Bowditch & Dewey, 311 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01615; (508) 926-3403 or bbachrach@bowditch.com Leonard Peltier Defense Committee PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044-0583 Web: E-mail: info@leonardpeltier.org Posted by Webmaster@AIMSupport.org 5:56 PM 
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