Kentucky Supreme Court Rules Inmates Meet Court Deadlines When They Deliver Postage Stamped Mail On Time To Prison Mail System.
Court reinstates inmate appeals, cites mail rules
By BRETT BARROUQUERE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Inmates who mail legal documents through a prison postal system have met their court-mandated deadlines for matters such as appeals, even if the filing doesn't reach the courthouse in time, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Justice Will T. Scott, writing for the court, found that as long as the inmate placed proper postage on the filing and dropped it into a prison's mail system before the deadline, the document is considered filed.
"Prisoners lack the ability to personally deliver the notice, mail and track the notice through the U.S. Postal Service, or phone the court to ensure receipt," Scott wrote.
The decision, a first for Kentucky, overturns a Court of Appeals ruling rejecting the appeals from two inmates and brings the state in line with much of the United States.
Kentucky changed its rules for inmate filings on Jan. 1, saying a legal document is considered filed if it has proper postage and is marked as deposited in an institution's internal mail system on or before the deadline set by the court. In enacting the rule, Kentucky joined other states in allowing inmate mailings to arrive at a clerk's office after a court-mandated deadline, so long as the document was put in the prison mail before the deadline.
The issue arose in the appeals of 42-year-old Michael Allen Hallum, who is appealing a conviction and 15-year sentence for sexual abuse in Logan County, and Joe Bert Jones, a 44-year-old appealing a conviction and 10-year sentence for assault and wanton endangerment in Marion County.
Jones, working without an attorney, dropped an appeal in the prison mail system March 15, three days before the deadline. The motion did not arrive at the courthouse until March 19, one day after the deadline.
Hallum, also working without a lawyer, filed a notice of appeal on Nov. 2, three days before his deadline. The filing arrived at the clerk's office on Nov. 13, eight days late.
The cases of Hallum and Jones were pending before the high court when the new rule went into effect. Scott wrote that the new rule retroactively applies to them.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 1988 case, held that filings from inmates working without attorneys shall be deemed filed when they are delivered to prison officials for mailing.
"Unskilled in law, unaided by counsel, and unable to leave the prison, (the pro se prisoner's) control over the processing of his notice necessarily ceases as soon as he hands it over to the only public officials to whom he has access - the prison authorities," then-U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan wrote for the court.
In recent years, courts including Indiana, Michigan and Texas, have handed down similar rulings concerning inmates handling their own cases meeting deadlines.
"Like our sister courts, we decline to penalize a pro se inmate who timely delivers a document to the prison mailbox," Texas Criminal Court of Appeals Judge Cheryl Johnson wrote in 2010.
By BRETT BARROUQUERE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Inmates who mail legal documents through a prison postal system have met their court-mandated deadlines for matters such as appeals, even if the filing doesn't reach the courthouse in time, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Justice Will T. Scott, writing for the court, found that as long as the inmate placed proper postage on the filing and dropped it into a prison's mail system before the deadline, the document is considered filed.
"Prisoners lack the ability to personally deliver the notice, mail and track the notice through the U.S. Postal Service, or phone the court to ensure receipt," Scott wrote.
The decision, a first for Kentucky, overturns a Court of Appeals ruling rejecting the appeals from two inmates and brings the state in line with much of the United States.
Kentucky changed its rules for inmate filings on Jan. 1, saying a legal document is considered filed if it has proper postage and is marked as deposited in an institution's internal mail system on or before the deadline set by the court. In enacting the rule, Kentucky joined other states in allowing inmate mailings to arrive at a clerk's office after a court-mandated deadline, so long as the document was put in the prison mail before the deadline.
The issue arose in the appeals of 42-year-old Michael Allen Hallum, who is appealing a conviction and 15-year sentence for sexual abuse in Logan County, and Joe Bert Jones, a 44-year-old appealing a conviction and 10-year sentence for assault and wanton endangerment in Marion County.
Jones, working without an attorney, dropped an appeal in the prison mail system March 15, three days before the deadline. The motion did not arrive at the courthouse until March 19, one day after the deadline.
Hallum, also working without a lawyer, filed a notice of appeal on Nov. 2, three days before his deadline. The filing arrived at the clerk's office on Nov. 13, eight days late.
The cases of Hallum and Jones were pending before the high court when the new rule went into effect. Scott wrote that the new rule retroactively applies to them.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 1988 case, held that filings from inmates working without attorneys shall be deemed filed when they are delivered to prison officials for mailing.
"Unskilled in law, unaided by counsel, and unable to leave the prison, (the pro se prisoner's) control over the processing of his notice necessarily ceases as soon as he hands it over to the only public officials to whom he has access - the prison authorities," then-U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan wrote for the court.
In recent years, courts including Indiana, Michigan and Texas, have handed down similar rulings concerning inmates handling their own cases meeting deadlines.
"Like our sister courts, we decline to penalize a pro se inmate who timely delivers a document to the prison mailbox," Texas Criminal Court of Appeals Judge Cheryl Johnson wrote in 2010.
Labels: Justice
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 4:14 PM
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