“Evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the Department of Corrections… with consideration as to whether it is feasible… to establish an oversight or advisory board…(c) policies for the operation of the Department of Corrections;”
Category Archives: Northern Nevada Correctional Center (NNCC)
Nevada Jurisprudence and Prison Report Vol. 3, No 4 – Fall Issue 2013
The spring 2013 Informational Bulletin Newsletter published by Nevada-CURE reported that NRS 179A.270-290, passed in 1997, required the Central Repository for Nevada Records of Criminal History to collect sex offender recidivism data. In 2009, the Central Repository petitioned to have these responsibilities removed through AB 81 apparently because “the agency has neither the staffing nor the technical expertise to address recidivism of sex offenders.” Unfortunately, AB 81 passed.
Ron S.
A Nevada prisoner
Corrections department flouts new law requiring autopsies for inmates who die in custody
In: Las Vegas Sun, Dec. 16, 2013
By: Ana Ley
More than two months after prison inmate Richard Ferst’s corpse was discovered inside a cell at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, it remains unexamined inside a cold chamber at a funeral home in Carson City.
Ferst’s mother, Sandy Morningstar of Las Vegas, hopes preserving the body will help reveal how her son died — something prison officials haven’t explained.
Following her son’s wishes, Morningstar wants to scatter Ferst’s ashes into the Pacific Ocean at Newport Beach, Calif., where he grew up. It was Ferst’s favorite place.
“Because of their screwing around, my son is still in a refrigerator,” Morningstar said. “It’s maddening.”
Ferst is one of four state prison inmates who died in October at the same facility under the care of the Nevada Department of Corrections. Officials never said whether a death investigation was requested in the cases. Three other prisoners have since died at other facilities, and autopsies revealed a cause and manner of death for two of them.
Relatives and civil rights advocates say they have grown increasingly frustrated by the prison system’s lack of urgency in determining why some of the men died.
The Nevada Department of Corrections did not request a postmortem examination for Ferst after he died Oct. 5, even though a new state law, effective June 2, requires department officials to do so for any inmate who dies under prison care. The law was openly endorsed earlier this year by prisons director Greg Cox, who did not respond to requests for comment via the department’s public information office.
Read the rest here.
More news about the recent deaths in custody from Las Vegas Sun:
More than two months after prison inmate Richard Ferst’s corpse was discovered inside a cell at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, it remains unexamined inside a cold chamber at a funeral home in Carson City.
Ferst’s mother, Sandy Morningstar of Las Vegas, hopes preserving the body will help reveal how her son died — something prison officials haven’t explained.
Following her son’s wishes, Morningstar wants to scatter Ferst’s ashes into the Pacific Ocean at Newport Beach, Calif., where he grew up. It was Ferst’s favorite place.
“Because of their screwing around, my son is still in a refrigerator,” Morningstar said. “It’s maddening.”
Ferst is one of four state prison inmates who died in October at the same facility under the care of the Nevada Department of Corrections. Officials never said whether a death investigation was requested in the cases. Three other prisoners have since died at other facilities, and autopsies revealed a cause and manner of death for two of them.
Relatives and civil rights advocates say they have grown increasingly frustrated by the prison system’s lack of urgency in determining why some of the men died.
The Nevada Department of Corrections did not request a postmortem examination for Ferst after he died Oct. 5, even though a new state law, effective June 2, requires department officials to do so for any inmate who dies under prison care. The law was openly endorsed earlier this year by prisons director Greg Cox, who did not respond to requests for comment via the department’s public information office.
Read the rest here.
More news about the recent deaths in custody from Las Vegas Sun:
Nevada Jurisprudence and Prison Report (summer 2013)
“Veritas in Caritatis”
Summer Issue 2013
THEME: “Audi alterum partem” – Listen to the other side!
“Voice of the Nevada Jurisprudence and Prison Report”
E-mail: nvjprudence@gmail.com
Website: http://nvjprudence.wordpress.com
Statement of Purpose:
The NJPR Newsletter reports on current prison conditions, good and bad; more importantly it looks at and evaluates the legal processes and the substantive laws which are designed to keep men in prison: Pre-trial issues, probation and parole policy, sentencing structures, postconviction law, and most important, the philosophy underlying policy in practice.
The purpose of the NJPR Website is to provide a repository of affidavits, declarations and grievances in Web-Dossiers organized by categories of intuitional behavior. Fundamentally, this is a whistleblowing organization trying to associate with other “transparency” projects at an intrastate, national and global level. We seek to identify patterns which can be utilized by the U.S. Department of Justice.
We invite any resident, and especially judicial officers of the Courts and government Administration to write
letters to the NJPR.
Index to this Issue:
Section One: Conditions
1. The Death of Scott Hyatt- by Kevin Pope
2. Level System Report
3. Parole Board Inquisition and Serial Sentencing
Section TWO: Law, Equity and Policy
1. Justice Procedures and Government Concealment: Policy of Secrecy
Section Three: Art, Culture, Education and Religion
1. Denial of Access to Chapel Facilities Suit
2. Update on 12-Step Programs
3. Veteran’s Activities
Subscriptions and Services
Nevada Jurisprudence and Prison Newsletter can be delivered via e-mail or snail-mail. We ask you send a copy into NDOC system and your local legislature and press!
Dept. of Justice Issue Dossiers:
Scanning, storage and Electronic Delivery of Dept. of Justice, press, politicians and state administrators.
——————–
Section One: Conditions
1) A Kinder Gentler Genocide, Kevin Donald Pope
Scott Hyatt, of Unit 2, Dorm B-3, who was not under death penalty or the “other” death penalty, life-in-prison, laid in a near comatose condition. He was recently diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, a terminal illness, but curable by a marrow transplant.
He was told by prison that the treatment was “not available”. I helped him write letters begging for compassionate release. The prison did send him to Carson/Tahoe Hospital for treatment, but it failed so he was sent back to prison.
According to Scott, the only way to stay alive was regular blood transfusions, six (6) pints at a time. Two days before he died, Scott told me he was given only 2 pints of transfusion. That night he laid in a near comatose state in his dorm and began to bleed out of his orifice. He died two days later.
The prison staff and doctors are in the main honest people trying their best. Dr. Gedney is, in my book, an unsung hero who saved my life in the past. However, they must work against the policy of genocide—insurmountable odds marshaled against them by the administrators above them, hiding like stalkers in their shadowy offices of power over life and death. There are staff who form power cliques who sadistically delight in carrying out the policies of disdain and hatred, behind the mask of “legality”. I call this the hidden agenda of discontent and malice, intending to create havoc by making human pain through Undue Stresses for the sake of civil police-state idols of calculated efficiency, cost-effectiveness and vengeance.
[Editor’s note: In earlier editions, Fall 2011, we were puzzled that the compassionate release law which used to be in the hands of the Parole Commissioners at NRS 213.1217 was repealed. Mister Pope informs us that this power was merely transferred by NRS 209.3925 to the hands of the Director of the Nevada Department of Corrections, which is to jump from the frying pan to the fire.]
2) Level System Report
In 2001, the legislature of Nevada passed an enabling statute that stated the NDOC Director “may” implement a level system in his facilities. All of the prisons in Nevada began to do so, where the custody level was rated “high” or “medium high”. NNCC, a medical yard and a medium custody warehouse, created a level system operating procedure (OP) but it was never suitable for a medium yard. In June of 2012, Administrative Regulation 516, Level System, was signed by Director Cox. The NDOC is exempt from all due process safeguards, such as evidentiary hearings on record, public notice, attendance and commentary. The ONLY check on the arbitrary and capricious rule is the prisoner lawsuit. It is policy of the state of Nevada that citizens of prior bad acts and public convictions are subject to civil legal sanctions that act as shields to the erosion of state police power to be capricious and arbitrary.
The system of levels is a policy of undue pressure. Just today, an intimate associate of ours, a man on the yard as a reward for years of good behavior, snapped. This man was commuted from death sentence, to life without. He struggles with immense sorrow for his liberty. This new system locks him down 3 days out of 4, deprives him of all human dignity of hope, personal growth—then expect him to take “ownership” while the police state will NOT see its own errors.
3) The “Perfection Clause” and Substantive Due Process: Nevada’s Secret Tribunals—Psych Panels/Boards
The attack of the originalist movement in legal circles aims at increasing the unilateral police power of the state by the reduction of immunities and privileges of citizens accused or convicted of crime. The originalists (Justices Scalia and Thomas) are rooted in a secularized biblolotry derived from the twisted sola scriptura doctrine of Martin Luther in the 1500’s. Most fundamentalists are harmlessly duped to believe that no good, no truth and no beauty exists outside the four-corners of the bible. Scalia and Thomas are almost Constitutional fundamentalists—if a principle of law cannot be found in the letters of the document it’s no law at all. They scorn the intellectual virtue of inference, where such an inference was not also left behind in the historical records of the framers spoken or written word. This kind of jurisprudence is called legal positivism, the tool of tyrants and totalitarian systems. The U.S. Constitution, with its clause of perfection implies that the support of tyrants was not the goal of the American Fathers. It says, “We the people… in order to form a more perfect union…” means a historical commitment to moving away from the evils of total state power to the point of a fascist state wearing perfume of sanctity. Lady Liberty smells like a fancy whore.
Nevada thinks “perfection” means creating secret tribunals that mentally torture the condemned, and perpetrate the practice of “serial sentencing”.
The psych-panels, which are described below, were hidden behind the Regal Decree’s of Mr. Brian Sandoval back when he was Attorney General in 2003. He issued the sinister law that “Because the Psych Panel functions as an arm of the sentencing court (judiciary) and are not subject to the requirements of the Open Meeting Law.” [Open Meeting Law Opinion, (OMLO 2003-21/A6 File No. 03-019].
This opinion is in the favor of the accused in a back-handed way, because it implies that those subject to the psych panel are entitled to demand due process privileges such as legal counsel present, rights of rebuttal, evidentiary rules. Of course the only intention of Brian Sandoval was to conceal the activities of the Psych Panel, and prevent the public from perceiving what really goes on—the psychological torture of a new hearing which is successive to the first sentencing hearing years before. If the Psych Panel is a judicial body, rather than an administrative body, it is due to provide the level of procedural protections required by the
Constitution.
At least that is a claim that could be made. The odd thing is that the Administrative Regulation 813.01 (8) states the Psych Panel is “Subject to Open Meeting Law.” Most men who have gone to the Psych Panel and Parole Board would testify that the behavior of both the Panel and Board members is often that of a brow-beating judicial torturer-interrogator. All evidentiary rules are thrown out the window and both Tony Corda and psychologist and Robert Schofield have been knowing to yell and berate inmates for events of childhood.
Luckily, the Psych Panel has been “reformed”; the bad news is that the reform is merely a concentration of all power to inflict pain is vested in one man and one tool of inquisition—an actuarial device used in the insurance industry; Senate Bill No. 104 has disbanded the 3-Person Panel, effective July 1, 2013. Instead, the Psych Panel powers becomes included in the powers of the Director of prisons, Greg Cox, who will send a psych tech over with an “accepted standard of assessment”. Further, the state will not “take ownership” for any future abuses, mistakes or errors in such assessments, [213.1099-3]!
Section Two: Law and Equity
1) Justice Procedures and Government Concealments State Policy of Secrecy
The last issue carried a review of a law review article by Rachel Barkow, “Separation of Powers and the Criminal Law”, (58 Stan. L. Rev. 989). The article begins to expose the myth to the public, which all prisoners know from first hand experience: there is no true ADVERSARY SYSTEM. That phrase is a slogan parroted by district attorneys, and all other “stakeholders” in the system, to CONCEAL the truth of a continental inquisitorial system in place. That means we citizens are tried by an official of the executive branch—a whole army of officials, called the “Criminal Justice Community” (CJC). The problem is, they make up the rules as they go along— without oversight!
For example, court rules. The most crucial part of any action, process or creation is the beginning. In the criminal justice system, the beginning is the police investigation. That’s why over the years the Supreme Court of the United States began to make rules with its famous Miranda v. Arizona case, requiring the announcement of rights to the suspected citizen.
Judicially, the beginning is the Grand Jury indictment or the Complaint filed by the local attorney or attorney general at the Justice Courts (in Nevada, at least). Yet, for many many years, there were no Justice Court Rules! So certainly there wererules, but only the administrators knew what they were. Unbelievably, Reno Justice Court did not publish rules until 2012, and Sparks (and the rest of rural Nevada) did not publish them until 2013!
So, like the ADKT 411 “standards” for professional defense lawyers, these rules need to be actively promulgated by the local courts, so that defendant-citizens know how to fight back!
In Europe, such rules are not kept secret, and as a result the incarceration rate is 76% lower, Will America do this? No. will Nevada? HELL no.
District Court rules have long been available, but not to pretrial detainees. Even so the rules are skewed to favor the un-detained and prejudice those held without bail. The response times, for example, don’t give the prisoner a fair hearing. State attorney’s are allowed to file responses to prisoner petitions on the day of the hearing, so that the prisoner cannot respond. This is due to the special viciousness of American state-religion, the social nationalism made famous in the abuses totalitarian-fascist regimes in World War II Germany. That is why the European inquisitorial system is so dangerous—it is highly subject to abuse without protective oversight.
What we have today in America is cogently sinister. It has a inquisitorial system hiding behind a façade, a lying myth, that it s an “adversarial system”. Because of the logical fallacies which seem to be genetically bred into Americans, they believe anything that comes out of the four-corners of the television, radio, newspaper and Smart phones. So did the Garman’s of Nazi Germany.
The early, critical stages of the Grand Jury, and preliminary hearing are not protected by adversarial rules—they are considered “administrative” in nature, inquisitorial. When Europe let go of oversight at such inquisitions, it burnt 12 million Jew. When America allowed such protections to the citizen go, it built up the biggest prison gulag the world has ever seen. Only free people, enslaved to their blissful stupidity, cannot SEE the crisis. Amazingly, even Nevada prisoners are lulled into blissful stupidity—by design. Nevada is
one of the few state systems that allow private TV. Take them away, like they do in Ely and lock-down units, you get angry fighters.
Unless the American CJC corrects its behavior of denying access to knowledge of legal processes, the system will keep expanding until it implodes.
Section Three: Art, Culture, Education and Religion
1) Denial of Religions Rights to Those Who Require Sanctuary Space
Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) can be supposedly accessed by any person, and the NJPR has reviewed a prison lawsuit by Dirk Klinke, Kevin Pope and J. Quintero, Cs. No. 3:13-cv-00008-mmD-VPC.
The prisoners attempted to bring a class action suit for alleged NNCC Facility deprivations and systemic NDOC deprivations of constitutional privileges.
Klinke claims that low level officials circumvent the Prison Director’s and Prison Commission’s administrative regulations that state hospitalized and punished prisoners in the Unit Seven segregation units by “round-filing” inmate requests (throwing them in the trash can) Klinke has been told he will be moved off the yard to another facility. Pope filed for discriminatory animus by prison guards to his Siddha Yoga gurus.
Quintero filed for religious deprivation of the sanctuary space in the multi-purpose facility that provides legal, religious and physical exercise services; he lost the prison custom of giving access to Catholic rosary devotees to the three Chapel rooms under the supervisory eye of the camera system and the neighboring law librarian and coach. The action was severed by Judge Miranda M. Du, meaning each plaintiff had to file separate pleadings.
2) Update on 12-Step Programs
Last issue notified Nevada officials and news outlets that not only was Alcoholics Anonymous completely “eradicated” the institutional sadism of those officials, it (AA.) was reduced (or raised) to a privilege reserved only to a particular class of NNCC inmate, those who participate in the Senior Structured Living Program.
We at the NJPN received a garbled e-mail that seemed to be trying to imply the issue raised threatened the well-being of SSLP members, and that the program and its founder were trying to do good. Nowhere in our article did we question the goodness of keeping AA as a prison program—we stated that creating a caste
system is unfair to those in the lower class, and that sequestering it to ONE unit is violative of AA. principles themselves.
At any rate, AA is now available for two additional units, No’s 3 and 5 now get visits from an “outside” sponsor 1 day per week.
May the ghost of Al Garcia haunt the wardens. This all boils down to the reduction of access to the prison facilities begun with this level system—prior to the “official beginning”, the college classrooms in Mayberry were closed, and the meeting rooms of the Gym/Chapel/Law Library Complex were made off-limits.
3) Veteran’s Activities
First, the Vietnam Veteran’s Association (VVA) got told they could not provide refreshments to their members at their monthly meetings. Then, they got told they cannot hold “fundraisers” any more—one of the only delights of the year for NNCC inmates was to get “street food” once or twice a year, and a summer barbecue. Then, the administration said it could not pass out a Christmas eve goodie bag to the evil convicts anymore. Then the Glorius Leaders said the VVA had to close their office.
A medical transfer from Lovelock said the last fundraiser there was in 2012.
They stopped at NNCC in 2011.
Nevada Jurisprudence and Prison Report – Vol. 2, No 4 Spring Issue 2012 (published in September of 2012)
Nevada Jurisprudence and Prison Report
Vol. 2, No 4 “Veritas in Caritatis” Spring Issue 2012
THEME: “Audi alterum partem” – Listen to the other side!
“Voice of the Nevada Jurisprudence and Prison Report”
E-mail: nvjprudence@gmail.com
Website: nvjprudence.wordpress.com
Statement of Purpose:
The NJPR Newsletter reports on current prison conditions, good and bad; more importantly it looks at and evaluates the legal processes and the substantive laws which are designed to keep men in prison: Pre-trial issues, probation and parole policy, sentencing structures, post-conviction law, and most important, the philosophy underlying policy in practice.
The purpose of the NJPR Website is to provide a repository of affidavits, declarations and grievances in Web-Dossiers organized by categories of intuitional behavior. Fundamentally, this is a whistleblowing organization trying to associate with other “transparency” projects at an intrastate, national and global level. We seek to identify patterns which can be utilized by the U.S. Department of Justice.
We invite any resident, and especially judicial officers of the Courts and government Administration to write letters to the NJPR.
Index to this Issue:
Section One: Conditions
1. The Retrogression of NNCC Court Access
2. Report on Parole and Probation Practices
Section TWO: Law, Equity and Policy
On Motions to Correct Illegal Sentences
Section Three: Art, Culture, Education and Religion
Poem: Inmate Gratitude by Terrence Sweeney
Subscriptions and Services
Nevada Jurisprudence and Prison Newsletter can be delivered via e-mail or snail-mail. We ask you send a copy into NDOC system and your local legislature and press!
E-mail: $3 for 6 months
$5 for 12 months
Snail-mail: $8 for 6 months
$15 for 12 months
Dept. of Justice Issue Dossiers:
Scanning, storage and Electronic Delivery of Dept. of Justice, press, politicians and state administrators.
.75¢ 1st 10 pages ($7.50)
.60¢ per page after that
Customized letter: $1 per 250 word
Section One: Conditions
1) Law Library Closure at NNCC
About two years ago, the Administration threw out two thousand hardbound volumes of Supreme Court and Pacific Reporters, claiming the computer access would adequately replace the loss. The prison “saved” no money in the wanton destruction, but probably are losing money through the high cost of digital services through Mathew Bender & Company, Inc. On top of this are the exorbitant printing costs for the hundreds of thousands of pages to replace the pre-printed volumes that would have lasted a hundred years. What kind of moronic fiscal responsibility is that?
Now, in early August, the law library has shut its doors entirely. The prison clerks are not trained in the law and no arrangement for access to trained professionals has been made. Already, copies of personal criminal proceedings are being carried by PRISONER law clerk assistants, by hand from the units to the copy machine in the library and back. This has already caused problems because inmate petitioners cannot be present to supervise the copying of complex pleadings with many exhibits.
2) Report on Parole and Probation
Mike X. is over 60 years old. Some years back, during the course of the break up of his marriage and loss of a family business, he was arrested for sale of a small amount of drugs to an under-cover agent in Reno, Nevada. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to drug court in lieu of prison. The expense of the alternative is borne by the convict to the extent that Mike, who was also without a car, was unable to meet his obligation. He absconded to California, where he had friends and a job waiting for him. He did well for a year or so then was injured and ended up in a convalescent hospital. He was taken custody by local law enforcement, taken to local jail and picked up by Nevada law enforcement and transferred back.
At his hearing, the District Attorney offered drug Court again, but John was in worse condition than before, so he refused and chose to serve his 2-5 year sentence in prison. The judge so ordered, and John, still injured, spent his first three or four months in the prison infirmary. He went to the main units for about three months, then had his first parole hearing.
His “parole plan” for the Parole Board Hearing was to go back to the convalescent home in California and/or to his friends there. He was approved for parole on this plan.
After the hearing, he was informed by his unit officer that they would not release him to California and the reason given was “they don’t do that anymore”. Eventually he was released to Safe Harbor Half-way House at 469 9th Street in Reno, Nevada.
The State, says John, pays the first three weeks of the program fees, and then the rest is up to the parolee. John had been given 29$ upon his release, and the program costs 650$ month. The program, according to John, offered three meals and a bed, and nothing else. Had he been able to stay on his sentence would have expired in January 2011. He was unable to get his disability payments reactivated within the three weeks he had his rent paid by the State of Nevada; the program began to ask for their money, and John was also bound to pay a 30$ per month Parole fee, and a 50$ drug evaluation fee for a psychoanalyst report. The program supplied the card of a professional analyst he was to have hired. John, having no income became overwhelmed and decided to turn himself into the parole officer assigned to his case and lie to the officer so he would get “violated” and taken back to prison.
John’s assigned officer was not in when he arrived. The duty officer that day was assigned to talk to him. John informed her he had taken vicodin’s. She questioned him for about 5 minutes then had another officer came and cross-examined him. They did not drug test him. He was in County Jail in about 2 hours. He was there 2 months. His assigned Probation Officer, Ms Simon Tachi, came to see him to have him sign paperwork. John did not have his required “revocation hearing” until he was in prison for three weeks not while he was at County Jail.
At his Revocation Hearing, John fessed up to what he had done and they reinstated his parole and gave him until April 1 2010 to go back to them and supply them with a new “parole plan”. John is considering that it would be safer for him to spend the remainder of his sentence in prison, as he cannot thrive in the State of Nevada as he has no family, no friends, and no income. If he “expires” his sentence, he would be free from the Nevada system and could travel back to California. John is a professional grade graphic artist.
Section Two: Law and Equity
1) On Motions to Correct Illegal Sentences
Notes on the Use of Edwards for Governmental Evasion of Motions to Correct Illegal Sentences in the State of Nevada.
The Executive branch at local and central levels has convinced the judicial branch that the convicted and incarcerated citizens of the region cannot succeed in finding relief under the statutory “Motion to Correct an Illegal Sentence” (NRS 176.555) UNLESS “it is illegal for being at variance with the controlling sentencing statute” Edwards v. State.
This controlling principle is derived from non-9th Federal District case law. The prisoners at NNCC recently received copies of three non-9th District cases which are cited by the Edwards court to support its pro-government stance of preferential treatment of prosecuting attorney. We will discuss these three cases and show how the local executive lawyers of the government have hoodwinked the judicial branch, and constructed a law that magnifies its own power and vitiates the individual citizen.
This is done by omitting from judicial consciousness the entire law of the underlying cases, and presenting to them only those portions prejudicially favorable to the government. This reductive prevarication creates a sham appearance of the American claim to the rule of law and is a major contribution to prison over-population, because it is a “legal” weapon in the war-on-crime denial of the lower courts, who trusted the statist executive branch lawyers twisted cutting up at the case law to insure its own “victory” at the high cost of injustice to Z. and thousands of others.
Prince v. U.S., 432 A2d 720
Z. was denied his motion to correct his outrageously unfair sentence because it fell within the range of maximum penalty allowed for by legislated statute, as stated in Edwards above. The implied message is that there are NO OTHER CIRCUSTANCES which give the judge cause to change the sentence. This is a fabrication.
The government lawyers derived this legal standard of Nevada from Prince v. U.S., 432 A2d 720, which (the lawyers tell the court) says
“A sentence is a nullity if it is illegal for being at variance with the controlling sentencing statute”.
What the government forgets to tell its local judges is that Prince is a case of the government filing a motion to correct a sentence. The judge in this case departed downward, giving a lighter sentence than called for by the statutes. The government had to file the motion two times before the judge would get it right and impose the ten year sentence. This Prince court relies on Bozza v. U.S. 67sct 645 which points out that “an excessive [broken off]
The case of Z.
We are going to scaffold this discussion upon a live case that probably represents the situation of thousands of illegally sentenced men in the industrial justice system.
Z. was driving in Las Vegas and was typically profiled as a black suspect; he refused to stop for about 30 seconds, but never sped up past miles per hour. He was stopped and searched, which produced two small packets of personal use drugs, one cocaine, one heroin. Z claimed there was no “probable cause” and a public pretender file a motion, and the court colluded with the government to come up with a fabricated police-car computer-generated document that provided a false-positive “cause”.
The defendant was offered a penalty of about four years prison with good time considered. He exercised his constitution right to a trial and paid the jury trial penalty, and eventually got a sentence enhancement on the bifurcation of two charges out of the one act of drug possession and received sixty years. Then, being placed in one of the southern Nevada lock-down prisons where true access to the courts is denied systematically he became time-barred on his Habeus Corpus.
He has been attempting a Motion to Correct since 2011, was denied and now is attempting a Motion to Reconsider the sentence should be “corrected” as well.
Now since the Government’s own stated aims are to seek justice in the abstract and not mere victory over its own citizens. It failed in its obligations to make concessions that excessive sentences can be requested by those convicted of them and the conditions under which this can occur. This failure of the government implies a hidden agenda of winning at all costs, as is if the adversarial system justifies the idea of equity and fairness inimical. So the question of how a prisoner convict can use this Motion to Correct Sentence begs to be answered.
Allen v. U.S. 495 A2d 1145 (D.C. App. 1985)
Another statist interpretation found in the Edwards case which is used to foreclose the Motion from effective use by citizens against the government is the argument that the Motion to Correct an Illegal Sentence can be only brought to fruition if the conviction is presumed to be valid, and that the court cannot entertain arguments of alleged errors in the proceedings prior to the imposition of the sentence. Only when the judge departs from the statutory perimeters can this motion be used—or so says the state. This Allen case builds on Heflin v. U.S. 79sct 451, Robinson v. U.S. 454 A 2d 810.
The third non-9th Circuit case which is the foundation of the repressive Edwards case is the Robinson case, cited above. Now, Robinson relies on U.S. v. Ramsey 655 F2d 398 (1981), which reveals two distinct kinds of illegal sentences: one in which is illegal on its face due to various reasons, and one which is the sentence is imposed in an illegal manner.
Nevada bureaucrats have weaved a public lie that motions to correct applies only when there is a defect in the imposition of statutorily correct sentence (either too much or too little punishment). But we’ve shown above a sentence is also illegal when there is no evidence to support a conviction and the judge fails to catch it. One example is the situation when the government “pyramids” sentences by sneaking in a conspiracy charge on top of the charge of consummating the conspired act—they should merge to one act. Or as in the case of Z, one act of possession of illegal drugs is punished as two acts even though there is no additional evidence to separate the act into two—like time, place or action.
The second way a sentence becomes illegal as described in the underlying Robinson case is the manner in which it is impose of which is a correction of a sentence made illegal by a government “pyramiding of penalties” by creating two counts of guilt for one act.
Now in Allen, the government does not pyramid, and they have proven two acts. But the case clearly defines a situation when a sentence can be illegal in other ways than just being statutorily incorrect. The Nevada Edwards case omits this discussion from the record and carefully redacts the Allen language to find words to fit its argument for statist domination over all the players in the “justice community”.
It is clear that judges themselves, and certainly not state-hired “defender” read the underlying case law to find the whole truth. It is a little know fact how the indigent and poor are routinely denied access to the non- Nevada and non-9th Circuit cases at the facility law libraries, and the Supreme Court will not supply such law except to the WEALTHY inmate who can pay. The rule which the underlying Allen case makes is that a sentence is illegal on its face when it creates two counts and two punishments from a single act, as in the case of Z…
This applies to Z because he was punished for exercising his rights to trial by not only sentencing him twice for one act, but he got a quantum leap of punishment by getting the “habitual criminal enhancement”, and received a potential death sentence of 60+ years! Remember, the government offered him years!
Now, the state of Nevada statute has a ritual procedure that must be met not just substantially but strictly. If the government indicts by Grand Jury and they decide to enhance, they must give a “notice” of such to the Grand Jury and defendant. If the government charges by information then seeks enhancement, the government must Amend the complaint. Not give “notice” to Grand jury, but Amend complaint.
The underlying Robinson case, the court establishes absolute strictness to this ritual. The dissent of Mack says it best:
“The commission of this procedural error can well result in the loss substantive right… since the legal requirement for imposition of a sentence was not met here… the court did not have authority to impose the [enhanced] sentence”.
Z. got a “notice”, not an amended complaint so his sentence is illegal for two reasons: double jeopardy and improper imposition of sentence both of which can be addressed under a Motion to Correct on Illegal Sentence.
However, one cannot see this in the case law of Edwards in Nevada. One has to read all the underlying case law to discover the oppressive violence by virtue of the Executive branch lawyers covering up the whole record, concealing the truth, duping the judges and publics, and reductively obscuring the parts of the rules of law which will diminish government power, and enhance the possibility of victory for citizens in the Anglo-American adversarial system.
Section Three: Art, Culture, Education and Religion
1) Poem:
Inmate Gratitude
Each day you work an angel in my life
Perhaps one day you’ll save me from a knife.
Amid the ridicule you keep me safe from harm
When gangs attempt to try and break my arm
Ready you stand when needed by my side
Even solace you give the night I cried
Comfort when friends and family fell ill and died
Your presence gives no place for evil to hide.
Your days are never simple and always rough
Surrounded by things who try to huff and puff
Challenged by cons to see of your up to snuff
One hardly ever thinks to thank enough.
Often fools, they throw you one more curve
They try so hard to work your final nerve
They blame you first for sentences they serve
Let this be just a thanks that you deserve.
PAX
Petition for Appointment of Guardian outside the Nevada Dept of Corrections: plz help Mr Tragale
We have another case Mr Tragale filed which contains complaints about a few employees of NDOC who are alleged to be abusive towards prisoners. We will soon post that case here too.
Please write to your Legislator and Director Cox of NDOC to ask them to have an independent commission look into these alleged abuses, and have them stopped.
NV-CURE has not conducted an independent evaluation of Mr. Tragale’s claims. However, such an investigation must be conducted by a person that is fair and impartial. The truth and actual events must be made public and scrutinized by the Legislature. Please e-mail / write NDOC Director COX and members of the NV Legislature with your views and opinions on this matter.
Nevada Jurisprudence and Prison Report
2. Food Degeneration
3. Clothing Degeneration
4. Inmate Beaten by Cops– Again
Gödel’s Political Theory
The Tyranny of Parole and Probation
Poem: Progress by Decree (for Doug, RIP)
Prisoner seeks to block plan to do away with kosher meals
We are all equal under the Constitution.
From: Vegas Inc.
By Steve Green
1 June 2011
Attorneys for a Nevada prison inmate filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order Wednesday in hopes of blocking the state Department of Corrections from carrying out a plan to stop serving kosher food to prisoners requesting it.
Attorneys for inmate Howard Ackerman say he’s an Orthodox Jew and that the state plans to discontinue kosher food service within all state prisons sometime this week or next week.
“This will interfere with the ability of Mr. Ackerman and similarly situated Orthodox Jews to be able to observe the tenets of their religion. This issue has been well litigated throughout the United States, including in this court, and it has been held time and time again, that such interference with a prisonerhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif’s right to kosher food is prohibited,” said the motion filed by attorneys Jacob Hafter and Michael Naethe.
The motion was filed in U.S. District Court for Nevada in Las Vegas, where attorneys for Ackerman earlier in the day filed suit against the state. The court had not acted on the request as of late Wednesday.
The lawsuit said Ackerman is a prisoner at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City.
Attorneys for the state had not responded to the suit as of late Wednesday.
————–
Here is the news in the Las Vegas Review Journal.
A quote from the attorney working on this case on behalf of the plaintiff:
Hafter said he understands the views of those who say people should not commit crimes if they do not want to lose their rights.
But, he responded, “Isn’t part of the purpose of being institutionalized to reform somebody?”
The lawyer said some people find religion in prison. He also said some people land in prison by unintentionally hurting someone or by being falsely accused.
“The real reason that I took this case is because what happens if, God forbid, I would wind up in prison or jail,” said Hafter, an Orthodox Jew.
“The fact of the matter is I would hope that I could practice my religious beliefs to the fullest extent that the Constitution allows.”
Hafter said Orthodox Jews believe that observance of the kosher dietary laws is “a divine commandment.”
“Judaism is a way of life,” he said. “We have laws that govern all of our actions … and no law is supposed to be more important than the other.”
Prisoner seeks to block plan to do away with kosher meals
We are all equal under the Constitution.
From: Vegas Inc.
By Steve Green
1 June 2011
Attorneys for a Nevada prison inmate filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order Wednesday in hopes of blocking the state Department of Corrections from carrying out a plan to stop serving kosher food to prisoners requesting it.
Attorneys for inmate Howard Ackerman say he’s an Orthodox Jew and that the state plans to discontinue kosher food service within all state prisons sometime this week or next week.
“This will interfere with the ability of Mr. Ackerman and similarly situated Orthodox Jews to be able to observe the tenets of their religion. This issue has been well litigated throughout the United States, including in this court, and it has been held time and time again, that such interference with a prisonerhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif’s right to kosher food is prohibited,” said the motion filed by attorneys Jacob Hafter and Michael Naethe.
The motion was filed in U.S. District Court for Nevada in Las Vegas, where attorneys for Ackerman earlier in the day filed suit against the state. The court had not acted on the request as of late Wednesday.
The lawsuit said Ackerman is a prisoner at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City.
Attorneys for the state had not responded to the suit as of late Wednesday.
————–
Here is the news in the Las Vegas Review Journal.
A quote from the attorney working on this case on behalf of the plaintiff:
Hafter said he understands the views of those who say people should not commit crimes if they do not want to lose their rights.
But, he responded, “Isn’t part of the purpose of being institutionalized to reform somebody?”
The lawyer said some people find religion in prison. He also said some people land in prison by unintentionally hurting someone or by being falsely accused.
“The real reason that I took this case is because what happens if, God forbid, I would wind up in prison or jail,” said Hafter, an Orthodox Jew.
“The fact of the matter is I would hope that I could practice my religious beliefs to the fullest extent that the Constitution allows.”
Hafter said Orthodox Jews believe that observance of the kosher dietary laws is “a divine commandment.”
“Judaism is a way of life,” he said. “We have laws that govern all of our actions … and no law is supposed to be more important than the other.”
NNCC: Prison’s biomass plant to be locked up
From: Bio Energy News
24 May 2010
Costing in the region of $8.8 million (€7.1 million) and developed with the aim of slashing the US-based Northern Nevada Correction Center’s utility bills, Nevada’s first biomass project has been deemed unsuccessful.
The biomass plant burns wood for the generation of heat and power. It was originally thought that it would be able to heat all of the water used at the prison, as well as produce enough power to reduce the centre’s monthly electricity bills of $40,000. Any excess electricity would be sold to NV Energy.
However Howard Skolnik, the director at NNCC has explained that the power producing facility ‘doesn’t pencil out’ in the future and if a buyer cannot be found by the summer of this year, the plant will be closed. ‘The original design was just not large enough to make it truly profitable in the long term,’ he said.
However some believe that the plant, of which $6.5 million was provided by the state, should not be shut as it utilises tonnes of forest waste that could otherwise cause catastrophic forest fires on the Sierra Front and Tahoe Basin.
Another problem facing the plant is the question of who will man it. In the original proposal it was stated that the prison inmates would operate it but Jeff Mohlenkamp, the deputy director at CCNN, has come forward and explained that the plant is too high-tech and complicated for this to become a reality. Mohlenkamp remarked: ‘But that doesn’t mean the technology and the concept is a bad thing. It’s a lesson learned. It doesn’t mean plants like this can’t be successful.’
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See also Las Vegas Sun