Growing Need to Protect Attorney-Client Emails
Hard to believe that federal prosecutors are doing this. ALL communications between lawyer and client should be protected! There are many good reasons why most of them are, and there should not exist this exception, carved out for inmates.
Excerpts from the Article:
Communication between attorneys and their clients has long been protected by federal law. Technology, however, has changed the way people in the legal field communicate in the span of a generation — a pace that has left legal protections behind.
“It’s common attorney sense, a bedrock of American law: when your attorney communicates with you, that’s supposed to be privileged,” said Jumana Musa, director of the Fourth Amendment Center at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL).
Common sense or not, that principle has not stopped federal prosecutors from prying into electronic communications to pursue convictions. The practice dates to at least 2011 when an incarcerated former Pennsylvania state senator’s emails to his attorneys were used as evidence to lengthen his sentence.
An assistant U.S. attorney in New York’s Eastern District warned defense lawyers in June 2014 that such communications were fair game, writing that “emails between inmates and their attorneys … are not privileged, and thus the office intends to review all emails.”
A bipartisan bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Sept. 21, 2020, seeks to end this practice by barring emails from prisoners to their lawyers from being monitored.
The Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act, co-sponsored by Georgia Republican Rep. Doug Collins and New York Democrat Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, drew praise from the American Bar Association, as well as the NACDL and civil rights advocates.
Jeffries has proposed similar bills before but hopes his persistence will be rewarded by the growing momentum of the criminal reform movement.
“Email is the most efficient way for an attorney to communicate with an incarcerated client and should enjoy the same protection as telephone calls and other forms of private communication,” Jeffries said.
The Bureau of Prisons had previously claimed its system lacked the complexity to sort emails to or from specific email addresses. An update in technology by October 2017 prompted then-Acting U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde to inform the Federal Defenders of New York of the change in policy.
“The government now agrees to request that the BOP exclude from most productions communications between a defendant and his or her attorneys and other legal assistants and paralegals on their staff,” Rohde stated.
Several unanswered Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by the NACDL led the group to file a FOIA lawsuit in October 2018 to discover to what extent prison emails were being filtered. Proponents of the new bill agree that it would allay fears of government intrusion into attorney-client communications to rest.
Dover PD looks to put mental health clinicians in police cars
A smart idea, which I have encouraged for years, and which I suggested to the Chief when I met with him.
Time to make it happen!
Excerpts from the Article:
Thomas Johnson, chief of the Dover Police Department, has researched the programs and heard some of the success stories that towns like Smyrna and Georgetown have had with getting mental health clinicians to ride along with police officers.
So, naturally, Chief Johnson is interested in starting a similar program in Dover.
However, due to the city’s much larger size, it is going to take the hiring of even more mental health clinicians and greater resources for the state’s capital than it has for smaller jurisdictions.
“We’re hoping that by the end of the year, we’ll be able to try and come up with a cadre of resources that will allow us to deploy in multiple dimensions that will have a component of somebody being in a car with the police officers,” said Chief Johnson, in reference to the mental health clinicians. “More than likely, our community policing resources, because we’re going to be expanding those resources very soon, and (clinicians are) going to do it across most of the waking hours, which will be able to make sure we get the right people in the right place at the right time.”
Amy Kevis, director of criminal justice and community partnerships for the support group Connections, was a police officer in New Castle for several years and noted the lost time and wasted hours police spend in arresting the same individuals time and time again.
She said putting those people in touch with mental health or substance abuse resources could help them break out of that pattern.
“You go to a call, and you don’t know what to do with this person, and you’d think, as a police officer, that locking someone up for a terroristic threatening or some misdemeanor violation is the best thing for them, because you’re getting them off the street,” Ms. Kevis said. “But it actually is not the best thing for them, because what we’ve done, and what has happened to a lot of these people, is we’ve criminalized behavioral health concerns.
“So now, we have these folks who can’t get jobs, who can’t get housing. They’re living in their cars, and they can’t even be functioning members of society because of the criminal arrests on their record that is a black mark and follows them for the rest of their life, and they’re not able to integrate.” She added, “I was a cop for 20 years, and if somebody needs to be arrested, they need to be arrested, but if somebody needs behavioral health help, arrest isn’t the best place for them, because then, they can become a pariah, and there are repeat calls, and they’re falling down over and over again.”
Chief Johnson agrees that having mental support clinicians on ride-alongs with police officers appears to be a good combination. He just wants to make sure his department takes the time to find the right approach for the city.
“We are trying to take what I describe as a holistic approach to this issue in trying to coordinate before and after — in other words, prevention response and follow-through,” Chief Johnson said. “I kind of put a big challenge in (Lt. Jordan Miller’s) lap to take care of those three dimensions of the problem, but also to address multiple subsets of populations that may be at risk that focuses on our substance abuse folks, our behavioral health folks, and I also wanted to try and see if we can garner an impact on our homeless population, in addition to all the other fine groups that are trying to provide services and install safeguards. I wanted to see if we could go after that, as well.”
Chief Johnson said he will take Dover PD’s resources into account. “Every jurisdiction is a little bit different. It has different resources available to it. It has different geography, numbers of people to be served against number of resources to serve them,” he said.
The city of Dover was presented with a similar plan just a couple of years ago, but then-Chief Marvin Mailey did not appear to be interested in having mental health clinicians in patrol cars, noting the possible danger they would be facing in the line of duty.
“A couple of years ago, Chief Mailey was presented the opportunity to have a social worker riding with the cops,” said Dover City Councilman Ralph Taylor Jr., who was a Dover policeman for 20 years. “It appeared that there was some kind of disconnect between the law enforcement professionals, as well as the social professionals.
“We want to make sure again that we break down every wall. We talk about police reform, and this was one of the areas of reform.”
Lt. Miller said the possibility of breaking the cycle of arrests for many individuals could well be worth any risk for the Dover Police Department.
“We spend way too much time here in Dover with a loitering compliant or a disorderly conduct that stems from a substance abuse issue, and this is not the first or second time that we’ve been dealing with that subject, which is what’s leading into the arrest,” Lt. Miller said. “Then, it goes over to court, where an officer is spending an hour typing a report, two hours waiting for court, and then for the charges to be dropped in a week … it’s a little disheartening.
“Anything we can do to try to prevent that in the future would be great.”
Ms. Kevis has found success in placing mental health clinicians with police departments in New Castle County, Smyrna and Georgetown.
“I realized in the last couple of years that I was out on the street (as a police officer) that there was a lot of mental health and substance abuse concerns that were cycling through the criminal justice system,” she said, “and before we even had our warrants written and back on the street, the individual was released on (own-recognizance) bond or non-bail. Rarely were they kept for any longer than a few hours unless they were incarcerated or they were intoxicated.”
The mental health clinician ride-along program is still growing and adapting every day, as the specialists try to reach out and help people before they fall into the cycle of arrests and releases.
“I think success can be measured in a lot of different ways,” said Ms. Kevis. “Folks are now staying in psychiatric hospitals for two to three days, which, if you start to bring out a course of medications for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, those medications don’t even have a chance to start working — and then, that person’s back on the street. Who’s the entity that responds to those calls 24/7? Law enforcement.
“So, as an administrator, having the officers getting an opportunity to maybe get some help in the field and get this person hooked up with services that they need, whether you want to do it in conjunction with the arrests or whether you want to do it in lieu of the arrests, is entirely up to each agency.”
She added: “As law enforcement, we’ve been asked to do lots and lots of things, but I don’t think police need to be social workers. They need to have the professionals with them that can enact as social services.”
Since becoming paired with the Smyrna Police Department, Mr. Deel said he has seen a jump in substance abuse and domestic violence occurrences there, as well as in Georgetown, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m seeing an increase in mental health events. Some of that involves domestic incidents due in part by COVID, with individuals being in situations that have really become a problem, and also an increase in overdoses,” he said. “In terms of most individuals that have a law enforcement background, you’re aware of how most people who have substance abuse issues, they also have a component with regard to mental health concerns.
“People are often just doing what they do just to try to mask the negatives of the day-to-day, and that’s why a lot of them use drugs or alcohol. I’m seeing an increase, and it’s in line with the mental health issues — in Smyrna and Georgetown, both.”
WhenMr. Deel speaks about working alongside members of the Smyrna police, one can hear the pride in his voice, as he is now considered part of the team there.
“From a day-to-day, I see the impact with my interactions with the officers,” said Mr. Deel. “I know most everybody in Smyrna has really welcomed me, and it seems to be a really good fit. We really work together as a team to address the concerns within the community.
“If (police) feel like there’s any potential for any kind of mental health or substance abuse concern, they usually bring me into that situation, and I more or less at that point take the lead on it. I have a background in mental health and substance abuse issues.” That is where Mr. Deel takes over and provides connections that will take the individual to a mental health facility in search of treatment rather than an expensive emergency room.
Smyrna Police Chief Torrie James said the addition of Mr. Deel to the department has been invaluable.
“What Jim brings to this department is, as a small police department, Jim being able to assess somebody for us — we don’t have a facility — we have to (transport) them from Smyrna to Dover, and they have to sit there for hours,” Chief James said. “Jim goes from Point A to Point B, and we skip that middle portion right then and there, so he saves us a lot of time and energy.
“What Jim also brings us is we all know right now that the world of policing has changed, and there’s no more arresting ourselves out of an issue. We have learned to ask ourselves a certain question, and that question is, ‘Why? Why are we continuing to come out to this house? Why are we continuing to deal with individuals?’ What we have now is we have Jim. We have a resource. Jim is in the car with the officer. He is that person that is there to give them that opportunity to get the help that they need — and immediately.”
Chief James said statistics prove that if officers give a suspect an option to come to the police department the next day, so they can help them out, that not many would pursue that option.
Mr. Deel, however, can provide immediate help and support. “We get phone call after phone call about people that really need him,” the chief said. “He’s doing it one person at a time, and he has definitely made a difference in this town.”
He also brings an additional aspect to the Smyrna police force that it might not have been expecting.
“One of the last pieces that (Mr. Deel) brings to this department that a lot of people don’t think about is all the health and wellness issues,” said Chief James. “I think that all of us in this job know that we (police) don’t really talk.
“My (officers) have gotten comfortable enough with Jim that he has become a resource for them to talk about their problems, whether it be work-related problems or home-related problems, he has become a resource to them, and they’re starting to open up with him.”
Dover Police Chief Johnson met with Ms. Kevis, Mr. Deel and others in July, “so we could start wrapping our head around the scope of the problem and the availability of resources.”
The group has since reconnected and tried to dissect the Dover Police Department’s current disconnect with mobile crisis resources.
“We’ve been trying to put all the puzzle pieces together, (so) that way, around the clock and around the calendar, a Dover police officer has a playbook, and it has all of the options that are available,” Chief Johnson said. “We’re also trying to tie in the funding component with that. We’ve got folks at the state level that we’re in conversations with, and we’re watching the models.
“Delaware State Police has just rolled out a model that they’re installing for the areas around Dover, and one of the things I was worried about when we were talking about concept was not letting people fall through the cracks because of jurisdictional lines.”
The chief added: “When you have Bayhealth (Hospital) in Dover, other police agencies bring people that might be under the services of somebody outside of Dover into Dover and what happens upon discharge? They’re on foot, and they’re on State (Street), and they’re on Governors (Avenue), and they’re in Dover. Continuity of their care would be important to make sure that the resources that are caring for them are all talking to one another.
“There’s a lot of moving parts in the direction that we’re going.”
Lt. Miller is confident that Dover will soon have mental health clinicians in its patrol cars. He only had one question. “In regards to substance abuse and a social worker with the police department, I couldn’t agree with Ms. Kevis or Mr. Deel more,” he said. “I agree with everything they said. As a matter of fact, we agreed with them so much that by the end of the meeting, the only question we had was, ‘Hey, how do we get a Jim Deel?’”
The Whole Story:
Dover PD looks to put mental health clinicians in police cars
Cincinnati Police Department Agrees to Audit of Its DNA Database
Another outrageous case of police misconduct! To me, as a former prosecutor, few things are worse. The job of police and prosecutors is to be FAIR, not just to lock up people!
Excerpts from the Article:
The Innocence Project of New York, along with the Cincinnati, Ohio, law firm of Gerhardstein & Branch (collectively “Plaintiff’s Counsel”), negotiated a settlement on September 14, 2020, wherein the Cincinnati Police Department (“CPD”) agreed to an unprecedented audit of its DNA-based homicide cases.
The settlement emerged from a 2018 civil rights lawsuit filed by Plaintiff’s Counsel on behalf of Joshua Maxton.
Maxton spent over a year in jail until a jury acquitted him of murder. During trial, the defense learned for the first time that the Cincinnati police were informed seven months earlier that DNA evidence from the crime scene resulted in a “CODIS hit” for alternate suspect Dante Foggie. A CODIS hit is a match of DNA submitted to the FBI’s CODIS database, which is a compilation of more than 18 million DNA profiles taken from people convicted of crime across the U.S.
The terms of the settlement provide that an audit team, overseen by court-appointed Special Master Ronald Safer, will conduct “a comprehensive investigation into a subset of homicide cases to determine whether DNA evidence obtained by the CPD was properly disclosed to persons, as is required by law.”
Covering cases from June 2011 to June 2018, the audit seeks to determine whether a CODIS hit matched DNA to a person other than the accused/convicted person, and if so, was the evidence disclosed to the defense. Any undisclosed DNA matches will be provided to the convicted person or that person’s last-known counsel. The cases will be reviewed by Safer, a team of pro bono attorneys and students from the Ohio Innocence Project. The settlement also provides that Safer will confer with numerous stakeholders in Hamilton County, Ohio, to recommend improvements for timely disclosures of DNA/CODIS evidence.
Nina Morrison, senior litigation counsel for the Innocence Project, said: “This settlement is historic. It acknowledges that Josh Maxton sat in jail for more than seven months on a wrongful murder charge, even after police were notified of DNA evidence that supported his longtime claim of innocence. It also provides a novel and rigorous process to determine if other innocent people in Cincinnati were convicted of crimes they did not commit.”
Inmate COVID cases take big jump
No surprise, when guards remove their masks as soon as they are off camera range! What a bunch of dangerous idiots!
Excerpts from the Article:
Positive COVID-19 cases at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center skyrocketed from 45 to 174 in a recent five-day span, according to an update Tuesday. The Delaware Department of Corrction reported that 155 COVID-19-positive inmates at Vaughn were asymptomatic as of Tuesday morning and 19 were experiencing symptoms. The numbers were 21 and 24, respectively, on Friday.
Correctional staff and contractor cases at Vaughn increased from 11 to 20 during the same time, with 19 personnel currently asymptomatic.
The DOC said the additional cases at the Vaughn prison, near Smyrna, were detected in four housing buildings.
The number of positive inmate cases at Delores J. Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution in New Castle increased from 32 to 36 in five days, according to the DOC. Staff and contractor cases went from 12 to 16, with 13 being asymptomatic.
Inmate COVID-19 cases at Howard R. Young Correctional Center in Wilmington rose from two to eight over the same time period. The seven positive staff and contractor cases remained the same; six of those were asymptomatic.
The DOC said inmate COVID-19 testing is ongoing, and approximately 250 inmate results remained pending Tuesday, including 120 at HRYCI, 100 at JTVCC and 30 at BWCI.
Claire DeMatteis
“For the first time since COVID-19 reached Delaware, we have active inmate COVID cases at three separate facilities,” DOC Commissioner Claire DeMatteis said in a news release.
“More than 86% of the inmates who have tested positive have no symptoms and those with symptoms are mild. We are staying ahead of these clusters by identifying them proactively, quarantining inmates in COVID treatment centers at JTVCC, HRYCI and BWCI, and providing quality care to get the individuals better.”
All but five of the inmates who tested positive are receiving round-the-clock treatment in DOC’s COVID-19 Treatment Centers at JTVCC, HRYCI and BWCI, the news release said.
Three COVID-19-positive inmates are being housed in the JTVCC infirmary for observation, one is being held in quarantine at HRYCI, and one with underlying health conditions is receiving treatment in stable condition at an area hospital, the DOC said.
Two positive inmates were showing symptoms at Hazel D. Plant Women’s Treatment Facility in New Castle on Tuesday, and one was present at Sussex Community Corrections Center in Georgetown, according to the DOC.
No current inmate cases were present at Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown, though asymptomatic staff and contractors rose from one to five from Friday to Tuesday.
Morris and Plummer community correction centers currently have no positive cases among offenders, according to the DOC. Two staff members at the Steven Floyd Training Academy in Dover tested positive and were asymptomatic, the DOC said Tuesday. On Nov. 16, the DOC announced that proactive screening measures and rapid COVID-19 testing identified a cluster of positive cases in one housing building at the Vaughn prison. Days later, the first inmate at Baylor tested positive.
Over the past 10 days, the DOC said it and its health care provider have administered 624 COVID-19 tests of inmates who have either exhibited COVID-like symptoms, have come into sustained contact with COVID-positive inmates or are assigned to housing units where positive COVID-19 test results have been returned.
According to the DOC, 221 of these tests have been returned positive and more than 150 tests have been returned negative.
The DOC said that 86% (191) of the inmates with active COVID-19 infection have no symptoms of illness and 14% (30) are exhibiting only minor symptoms.
The DOC said that more than 1,750 inmates across its facilities are receiving daily symptom checks by medical professionals, including temperature and pulse oxygen level checks, on top of existing prevention, screening, testing and cleaning efforts.
As community spread outside DOC facilities intensified this month, DOC temporarily suspended in-person visitation statewide Nov. 12 and temporarily suspended work-release programs statewide Nov. 18 to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission from the community into DOC facilities.
The Whole Story:
Trump pardons former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI – With Letter to the Editor – kra – And in so doing he undermines the Rule of Law! – kra
This is another stark reminder of what an asshole tRump is. I happen to specialize in Applications for Pardons, and Flynn does not even qualify to apply using the normal process. But no, no normal process is needed because tRump abuses his pardon power by pardoning his political buddies.
This sends a terrible and troubling message: it is ok to lie to the FBI about national security matters; there will be no serious consequences for this crime!
The Letter below was PUBLISHED on Sunday, 11/29/20 on p A9 of The Delaware State News! 🙂
Letter to the Editor: Trump’s Flynn pardon doesn’t follow the law
Excerpts from the Article:
President Trump on Wednesday announced he had pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, ending a three-year legal saga that saw Flynn seek to withdraw a guilty plea for lying to the FBI and a controversial reversal by the Justice Department on his case.
Flynn pleaded guilty to a felony in December 2017, admitting that he had misled investigators about details of his conversations with the Russian ambassador during Trump’s presidential transition.
His plea was one of the first major courtroom victories for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who had been appointed seven months earlier.
But this spring, Attorney General William P. Barr and the Justice Department declared that prosecutors should not have brought the case against him and sought to have it dismissed. That request has been pending before a federal judge, who has been reviewing the case.
Trump’s pardon of Flynn marks a full embrace of the retired general he had ousted from the White House after only 22 days on the job — and a final salvo against the Russia investigation that shadowed the first half of his term in office.
The president and his allies have touted Flynn’s cause in their efforts to discredit the special counsel inquiry into whether individuals associated with Trump’s campaign cooperated with Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
On Wednesday, Trump tweeted, “It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!”
In 2017, President Trump said he fired national security adviser Michael Flynn for lying. Now, Trump is blaming the FBI for Flynn’s statements. (Video: JM Rieger/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Democrats responded to the long-anticipated pardon with outrage. In a lengthy statement, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Flynn had chosen “loyalty to Trump over loyalty to his country” and that Trump’s decision to was intended to insulate himself from criminal investigation. He called that a “corruption of the Framer’s intent” in giving the president broad pardon powers.
“It’s no surprise that Trump would go out just as he came in – crooked to the end,” Schiff said.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold R. Nadler (D-NY) called the pardon “undeserved, unprincipled, and one more stain on President Trump’s rapidly diminishing legacy.”
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the pardon.
Rather than immediately accept that, however, District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, who has overseen the case, signaled that he wished to explore whether the Justice Department had acted properly and if Flynn was being given special treatment because he is an ally of the president.
Flynn objected to Sullivan’s handling of the case, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled the judge did not have to immediately grant the Justice Department’s request to drop the matter.
Trump’s pardon shortcuts Sullivan’s ongoing review. The Justice Department will no longer be able to pursue charges against Flynn for lying to the FBI, even after President-elect Joe Biden and his new attorney general take over next year.
An intelligence expert who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Flynn, 61, was a prominent adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, famously leading crowds in chanting “lock her up” regarding Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
After Trump was elected, he designated Flynn to serve as his national security adviser. In that role, Flynn conducted a series of meetings and phone calls with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office. Among the topics the two discussed were new sanctions that were imposed on Russia by President Barack Obama on Dec. 29, 2016, in response to Russia’s interference in the election. Declassified transcripts of the call show that Flynn and Kislyak spoke that day, and Flynn asked that Russia not respond aggressively to Obama’s move or escalate the conflict.
The next day, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would take no action in reaction to the new sanctions, flummoxing officials in Washington.
The reason for the move, however, was made clear in a phone call from Kislyak to Flynn on Dec. 31, in which the Russian envoy told Flynn his views had been “taken into account” at the Kremlin and were the reason for the muted Russian reaction.
When Flynn was asked 24 days later by two FBI agents whether he discussed the sanctions with Kislyak, he told the agents that he did not remember doing so. In pleading guilty, he told the court he knew this was not true.
After a Washington Post columnist reported in January 2017 that Flynn had spoken to Kislyak on the day the sanctions were announced, Vice President Pence and other officials publicly said they had been assured by Flynn that he had not discussed the topic with the Russian ambassador.
Justice Department officials warned the White House that Flynn had been interviewed by the FBI. After that, Flynn acknowledged privately to Trump that he may have discussed sanctions with Kislyak. Trump’s top aides concluded they did not think Flynn could have forgotten the conversation and concluded he had lied. Flynn was then forced to resign from his post.
…………………
Letter to the Editor – Another Stark Reminder – 11/28/20
This is another stark reminder of what a loose cannon Trump is. I happen to specialize in Applications for Pardons, and Flynn does not even qualify to apply for a Pardon using the normal process. With the normal process, one must have completed one’s sentence and been off of probation or home confinement for at least 5 years before applying, except for “good cause shown”. See Rule 3 of Federal Pardon Rules. There certainly can be no “good cause” for this criminal, who admitted his crimes to two federal judges! Flynn was charged only in 2017! But no, no normal process is needed because Trump abuses his pardon power by pardoning his political buddies.
This sends a terrible and troubling message: it is ok to lie to the FBI about national security matters; there will be no serious consequences for this crime!
Trump no doubt will pardon more of his cronies before he is gone, but thank God that he will be gone, and incapable of doing such harm to one of our most cherished and respected world-wide principles: the Rule of Law.
Ken Abraham, founder of Citizens for Criminal JUSTICE, former Deputy Attorney General, Dover, DE 302-423-4067
Trump pardons former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI – With Letter to the Editor – kra – And in so doing he undermines the Rule of Law! – kra
This is another stark reminder of what an asshole tRump is. I happen to specialize in Applications for Pardons, and Flynn does not even qualify to apply using the normal process. But no, no normal process is needed because tRump abuses his pardon power by pardoning his political buddies.
This sends a terrible and troubling message: it is ok to lie to the FBI about national security matters; there will be no serious consequences for this crime!
Excerpts from the Article:
President Trump on Wednesday announced he had pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, ending a three-year legal saga that saw Flynn seek to withdraw a guilty plea for lying to the FBI and a controversial reversal by the Justice Department on his case.
Flynn pleaded guilty to a felony in December 2017, admitting that he had misled investigators about details of his conversations with the Russian ambassador during Trump’s presidential transition.
His plea was one of the first major courtroom victories for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who had been appointed seven months earlier.
But this spring, Attorney General William P. Barr and the Justice Department declared that prosecutors should not have brought the case against him and sought to have it dismissed. That request has been pending before a federal judge, who has been reviewing the case.
Trump’s pardon of Flynn marks a full embrace of the retired general he had ousted from the White House after only 22 days on the job — and a final salvo against the Russia investigation that shadowed the first half of his term in office.
The president and his allies have touted Flynn’s cause in their efforts to discredit the special counsel inquiry into whether individuals associated with Trump’s campaign cooperated with Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
On Wednesday, Trump tweeted, “It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!”
In 2017, President Trump said he fired national security adviser Michael Flynn for lying. Now, Trump is blaming the FBI for Flynn’s statements. (Video: JM Rieger/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Democrats responded to the long-anticipated pardon with outrage. In a lengthy statement, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Flynn had chosen “loyalty to Trump over loyalty to his country” and that Trump’s decision to was intended to insulate himself from criminal investigation. He called that a “corruption of the Framer’s intent” in giving the president broad pardon powers.
“It’s no surprise that Trump would go out just as he came in – crooked to the end,” Schiff said.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold R. Nadler (D-NY) called the pardon “undeserved, unprincipled, and one more stain on President Trump’s rapidly diminishing legacy.”
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the pardon.
Rather than immediately accept that, however, District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, who has overseen the case, signaled that he wished to explore whether the Justice Department had acted properly and if Flynn was being given special treatment because he is an ally of the president.
Flynn objected to Sullivan’s handling of the case, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled the judge did not have to immediately grant the Justice Department’s request to drop the matter.
Trump’s pardon shortcuts Sullivan’s ongoing review. The Justice Department will no longer be able to pursue charges against Flynn for lying to the FBI, even after President-elect Joe Biden and his new attorney general take over next year.
An intelligence expert who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Flynn, 61, was a prominent adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, famously leading crowds in chanting “lock her up” regarding Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
After Trump was elected, he designated Flynn to serve as his national security adviser. In that role, Flynn conducted a series of meetings and phone calls with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office. Among the topics the two discussed were new sanctions that were imposed on Russia by President Barack Obama on Dec. 29, 2016, in response to Russia’s interference in the election. Declassified transcripts of the call show that Flynn and Kislyak spoke that day, and Flynn asked that Russia not respond aggressively to Obama’s move or escalate the conflict.
The next day, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would take no action in reaction to the new sanctions, flummoxing officials in Washington.
The reason for the move, however, was made clear in a phone call from Kislyak to Flynn on Dec. 31, in which the Russian envoy told Flynn his views had been “taken into account” at the Kremlin and were the reason for the muted Russian reaction.
When Flynn was asked 24 days later by two FBI agents whether he discussed the sanctions with Kislyak, he told the agents that he did not remember doing so. In pleading guilty, he told the court he knew this was not true.
After a Washington Post columnist reported in January 2017 that Flynn had spoken to Kislyak on the day the sanctions were announced, Vice President Pence and other officials publicly said they had been assured by Flynn that he had not discussed the topic with the Russian ambassador.
Justice Department officials warned the White House that Flynn had been interviewed by the FBI. After that, Flynn acknowledged privately to Trump that he may have discussed sanctions with Kislyak. Trump’s top aides concluded they did not think Flynn could have forgotten the conversation and concluded he had lied. Flynn was then forced to resign from his post.
…………………
Letter to the Editor – Another Stark Reminder – 11/25/20
This is another stark reminder of what a jackass Trump is. I happen to specialize in Applications for Pardons, and Flynn does not even qualify to apply for a Pardon using the normal process. But no, no normal process is needed because Trump abuses his pardon power by pardoning his political buddies.
This sends a terrible and troubling message: it is ok to lie to the FBI about national security matters; there will be no serious consequences for this crime!
Trump no doubt will pardon more of his cronies before he is gone, but thank God that he will be gone, and incapable of doing such harm to one of our most cherished and respected world-wide principles: the Rule of Law.
Ken Abraham, founder of Citizens for Criminal JUSTICE, former Deputy Attorney General, Dover, DE 302-423-4067
Legal weed in Delaware? Pressure is on following New Jersey passage
Here we go again! Eventually, ALL states will fully legalize pot, BECAUSE IT MAKES SENSE! I have spoken with some of our legislators on legalizing Pot, and, WOW, some of them just don’t get it.
Excerpts from the Article:
Supporters of legal weed hope that New Jersey voters’ overwhelming approval to legalize marijuana will be the final push needed for Delaware lawmakers to do the same, especially if residents end up driving across the bridge and funneling tax revenue to the state next door. The Democrat-controlled General Assembly has for several years been on the cusp of legalizing marijuana for adult use, with only a few extra lawmakers needed in order to pass a bill in Delaware. Those extra votes could be there now, after several new Democrats occupy seats in the statehouse next year. Add in a dramatic, pandemic-prompted state revenue shortfall, and proponents are hopeful that 2021 will finally be the year.
Delaware lawmakers will likely debate a bill in 2021 to legalize marijuana after New Jersey approved its own measure in November.
“With New Jersey legalizing cannabis last week, we believe it puts even more pressure on Delaware lawmakers to also legalize cannabis here,” said Zoe Patchell, lobbyist and director of the Delaware Cannabis Advocacy Network, last week.
The bill sponsor, Rep. Ed Osienski, D-Newark, thinks he has enough support in the House to send it over to the Senate, where Democrats now outnumber Republicans two to one. The bill needs three-fifths of lawmakers’ support, since it includes a tax.
But lawmakers already can’t seem to agree on the details, including how to spend the tax revenue. That could end up stalling the bill.
All the while, Delawareans could be going to New Jersey to buy marijuana (legally, it has to be consumed in New Jersey). Other Mid-Atlantic states are also considering their own law changes, which would only increase competition and drive revenue out of the First State.
“Within a year, maybe a little longer, their (New Jersey’s) program will be up and running,” Osienski said. “So my question to my colleagues is: How long do you want to send money over the bridge, tax money over the bridge to New Jersey? … If we can start working on, agreeing on language, we can be neck and neck with them.”
Osienski sponsored last session’s bill, but it never made it out of the House. His 2021 bill won’t look exactly like the one he introduced in 2019, he said.
Rep. Ed Osienski, D-Newark (left), and Sen. Trey Paradee, D-Dover, fielded questions from reporters in 2019 about their bill that would have legalized recreational use of marijuana in Delaware. Lawmakers have to introduce a new bill for the session that starts in 2021.
Osienski disagrees with dedicating the revenue to a specific fund because it could end up being volatile either due to persistent illegal sales or neighboring states also legalizing marijuana and then taking revenue away from Delaware.
He argues that legalization would help eliminate sales to minors, regulate the product so it’s safer and “put a serious hurt, if not eliminate the black market and, at the same time, creating an industry of jobs that, right now, does not exist.”
Marijuana is now legal in 15 states, thanks to voters in New Jersey, Arizona, Montana and South Dakota approving referendums on Nov. 3, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
New Jersey will tax sales and is hashing out the regulatory framework of how to sell it.
Before this month, Delaware had long been in a race with New Jersey to legalize the plant, and the Garden State is now the only one in the Mid-Atlantic to allow adults to buy and use it. Pennsylvania and New York are considering following suit. The District of Columbia is the closest jurisdiction where it is legal.
A 2018 poll from the University of Delaware Center for Political Communication found that 61% of Delawareans supported legal marijuana.
Unlike in New Jersey, voters in Delaware have to leave the decision to lawmakers instead of voting for it themselves. But Delawareans are also consistently electing more progressive, pro-legal marijuana Democrats into office.
Gov. John Carney does not support legalization and it is not clear if he would veto a bill if it comes to his desk.
When asked for comment for this story, Carney’s spokesman Jonathan Starkey pointed to Carney’s support for medical use and decriminalization of the drug — both of which are law in Delaware.
“He held two town halls on marijuana legalization earlier in his administration and has a lot of concerns about it,” Starkey said. “He also knows there are Delawareans who have a different view on this issue – including new legislators – and, as always, he’s willing to hear them out.”
Some of those new legislators will try to get Carney to come around during the next legislative session that starts in January. That includes Marie Pinkney, a progressive Democrat from New Castle who was elected to the Senate after ousting moderate Senate President Pro Tempore David McBride, D-Hawk’s Nest, in the September primary. “There are some people who want marijuana legalized simply because people enjoy it and they want to have a good time and they want to do what they want to do with it,” Pinkney said the day after she won the general election on Nov. 3.
“We can also talk about the fact that the marijuana industry will be a lucrative business, and when is there going to be a more important time to introduce lucrative businesses in our state than when we’re in the middle of a pandemic that has drastically impacted not just the state but the country?” she said. “We need the additional revenue.”
Lawmakers in June were able to shore up a coronavirus-induced revenue shortfall — a $400 million drop between December and June — for this fiscal year by dipping into reserves and postponing one-time projects, but it’s unclear how many more years the state will have to endure financial hardships.
Supporters in 2018 said legalization in Delaware would raise more than $20 million in taxes and the 2019 estimate ranged from $9 million to $50 million.
Sen. Dave Sokola, D-Newark, who supports legal weed and is taking over as the highest-ranking senator who will control if and when bills get voted on, expects that though lawmakers could have a hard time agreeing on the details, he thinks they will end up with “some version that would have a reasonably good chance to get through.”
“I don’t think we should spend a nickel on enforcement,” Sokola said. “It just seems to me that there’s no lethal dose. There is for alcohol, alcohol’s legal. There’s a whole lot of potential upside and not a heck of a lot of downside.”
Delaware State University to institute changes to sexual assault investigation process
You see, YOU can cause good changes!
Excerpts from the Article:
Following a student protest and petition regarding Delaware State University’s Title IX process, the university has agreed to several modifications moving forward and will hold a forum Tuesday.
Last week, Anissa Cartagena, a sophomore at DSU, held a march on campus after she told her story about her sexual assault and its handling by the university. She called for accountability and change.
Some of that change is coming: following the march, the university’s Student Government Association Integrity Administration met with DSU President Tony Allen and other administrators to call for immediate change in procedures.
“We were clear with Dr. Allen and his team that we stand with Anissa Cartagena and every student who has been a victim of sexual assault,” the Integrity Council said in a letter to students.
The university will hold the forum at 11 a.m. on their Youtube channel at youtu.be/-5e6M2QSZ9o.
Moving forward, the university will have students and administration review the Title IX process and will make a public statement of the findings that need improvement, according to a news release. The university committed to enhanced funding to the Sexual Assault Response advocate program and will also develop with SGA a “comprehensive prevention plan.” Lastly, it will conduct an annual campus climate survey.
Ms. Cartagena’s march last week brought together more than 30 people and started near Alumni Stadium and traveled to the center of campus. Her petition on Change.org, which has received just shy of 9,000 signatures, demanded conducting bi-annual campus climate surveys with published results, publication of aggregate data on sexual misconduct reports and access to sexual assault response advocates.
She also asked for the removal of the two staff members who handled her case, as well as better enforcing of no-contact orders.
The Whole Story
Thousands of sick federal prisoners sought release as Covid-19 spread. Nearly all were denied.
It is outrageous that authorities create false hope. They create and announce this mechanism, yet damn near NONE of such requests are granted.
The fact is that this is bullshit job preservation. For every 1 person arrested, 29 people benefit financially. Many are prison guards and probation officers. They are not about to let large numbers of ex offenders get out of the system!
Excerpts from the Article:
Even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Marie Neba feared dying in federal prison. The 56-year-old had stage 4 cancer — and three children waiting for her at home. “Right now, I can barely walk around because of generalized body pain and feet numbness,” she wrote, as she struggled through chemotherapy earlier this year. “The way things are going regarding my treatments here at Carswell can lead me to my grave.”
But last year when she tried to get a rare compassionate release from Carswell medical prison in North Texas, the warden denied her request. When Covid-19 hit, she tried again with a fresh request on March 30 — and this time the warden ignored her altogether.
In total, 349 women, about a quarter of the prison’s inmates, asked for compassionate release during the first three months of the pandemic. The warden denied or failed to respond to 346 of them, including Neba, who was in prison for Medicare fraud — even though federal guidelines allow compassionate release for terminally ill prisoners if they do not pose a danger to the community. In the months that followed, more than 500 women at Carswell fell ill with Covid-19 and six died. Neba was one of them.
Data recently obtained by The Marshall Project underscores what attorneys, advocates and experts have long suspected: As the pandemic ramped up, federal prison wardens denied or ignored more than 98 percent of compassionate release requests, including many from medically vulnerable prisoners like Neba. Wardens are the first line of review; ultimately, compassionate release petitions must be approved by a judge. Though the Bureau of Prisons has previously posted information about the number of people let out on compassionate release, it wasn’t clear until now just how many prisoners applied for it or how frequently wardens denied these requests despite widespread calls to reduce the prison population in the face of the pandemic.
Of the 10,940 federal prisoners who applied for compassionate release from March through May, wardens approved 156. Some wardens, including those at Seagoville in Texas and Oakdale in Louisiana, did not respond to any request in that time frame, according to the data, while others responded only to deny them all. Higher-ups in Washington, D.C., reviewed 84 of the warden approvals and overturned all but 11. Time and again, the only way prisoners were able to win compassionate release was to take the bureau to court to fight the wardens’ denials.
For dozens of people stuck behind bars, the virus has proved fatal; so far, 134 federal prisoners have died of Covid-19, and more than 15,800 have fallen ill. A statement from the Bureau of Prisons did not address specific questions, including why some wardens failed to respond to release requests. The wardens referred questions to the bureau.
There are currently two main ways to get out of federal prison early. One is known as home confinement, when prisoners are allowed to finish their sentences at home or in halfway houses. They’re still considered in custody, and the decision to let them go is entirely up to the Bureau of Prisons, with no legal recourse in the courts. At the start of the pandemic, a federal coronavirus relief bill expanded the eligibility criteria, and the bureau has since sent more than 7,700 prisoners to home confinement, the equivalent of 4.6 percent of the prison population at the start of the pandemic.
The other way to get out of prison early is compassionate release, in which a judge agrees to reduce a prisoner’s sentence to time served. But first, the prisoner must ask the warden for approval. After a warden denies the request or 30 days pass with no response, the prisoner can take the case to court and ask for a judge to approve it. So far, more than 1,600 people have been let out on compassionate release since the start of the pandemic — many of them despite the bureau’s best efforts to thwart them.
“Initially, they just opposed them all,” said Kevin Ring, president of the prisoner advocacy group FAMM. “They thought Covid-19 was no reason to let people out. They said prison was going to be safer.”
The Bureau of Prisons seems to have decided to rely on home confinement — where the bureau retains control over the person — rather than compassionate release, which reduces the sentence to zero, Ring said.
“They think their job is to keep people in prison, not to let people out,” he said. “Jailers gonna jail.”
Officials were slow to turn to home confinement, which didn’t ramp up until May, and were resistant to compassionate release even as the virus spread through the prison system and prisoners began filing lawsuits over the bureau’s refusal to send people home. At Elkton, an early hot spot in Ohio where nine prisoners died of Covid-19 and more than 900 got sick beginning in March, the warden denied 866 out of 867 requests for compassionate release between March 1 and May 31.
In California, the prison at Terminal Island became the site of a major outbreak, with 694 prisoners testing positive by the end of May. But the warden only approved five of the 256 compassionate release requests filed by that time.
At Butner, a four-prison complex in North Carolina where 25 prisoners and one correctional officer died in May and June, officials approved 29 of 524 requests by the end of May.
At some prisons, the low number of requests raised questions about the bureau’s recordkeeping. For example, at the Oakdale complex, an early hot spot in Louisiana where eight prisoners have died, officials reported just 95 compassionate release applications by the end of May out of a population of more than 1,700. The warden took action on none of them. At the same time, the prison racked up 191 positive cases.
Likewise at Forrest City, a two-prison complex in Arkansas where more than 700 men fell ill, officials reported only three applications by the end of May. All three were approved.
For more than a dozen institutions, including all 11 of the privately run federal prisons, the bureau listed no compassionate release requests at all.
“The numbers seem incorrect,” said Somil Trivedi, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, who has helped coordinate lawsuits against federal prisons. “I just don’t feel like they’re counting them all. This has to be an undercount because of the informal nature of the process.”
From the Carswell prison, Marie Neba wrote letters to U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen complaining about poor medical care and her worsening health as the pandemic continued. She worried about who would support her 21-year-old daughter in caring for her 9-year-old twin boys if she died in prison. Her husband, who was indicted in the same Medicare fraud case, fled the country for their native Cameroon to avoid trial.
Federal guidelines say that terminal illness, including metastatic cancer, is grounds for compassionate release. But after the Carswell warden ignored Neba’s request and she took her plea to court in April, federal prosecutors fought it aggressively, saying she didn’t deserve a 70-year reduction in her 75-year sentence. They argued, despite widespread reports to the contrary, that the Bureau of Prisons was doing its best to limit the spread of disease behind bars.
In April, government lawyers claimed Neba’s health wasn’t really deteriorating. As evidence of that, prosecutor Catherine Wagner produced a video showing Neba walking on a treadmill and using small weights in the medical center gym, pointing out that she was well enough to be “sweating and walking unassisted.” Neba’s lawyer said she was only following her doctor’s orders.
“He told her to exercise and eat right,” Zachary Newland said. Making sure she took care of herself, Newland hoped, would keep her alive and free of Covid-19 until she could come home.
Wagner and Department of Justice officials declined to comment.
The bureau took nearly three months to respond to The Marshall Project’s request for data on applications for compassionate release and how wardens responded, so the information that the bureau produced only goes through the end of May.
But more people won compassionate release in recent months than at the start of the pandemic. The Marshall Project’s tracking of publicly posted data shows that release numbers grew slowly in April, May and June before nearly doubling in August, when close to 500 people were freed. But those figures dropped in September, and attorneys and experts say that prison officials are still denying releases and that prosecutors are typically opposing the requests in court.
Another recent case in which both the bureau and prosecutors opposed release was that of Jordan Jucutan, a former Army Reserve recruiter sentenced to 28 months in prison for claiming bonuses for soldiers he didn’t really recruit. He was obese, asthmatic and needed two inhalers, but prosecutors claimed in court that he was “actually much safer” behind bars than he would be if he were released, because his home county — Thurston County in Washington — had more coronavirus cases than the prison did. A federal judge found that argument unpersuasive: “It makes little sense to compare a prison in Oregon with a whole county in another state,” Judge Ramona Manglona wrote, before approving Jucutan’s release from FCI Sheridan in September.
Even in the rare instances in which prison officials agree that someone deserves compassionate release, advocates say, they’re still not initiating the process; instead, it’s up to the prisoners to do that themselves. “We are not aware of a single BOP-initiated motion for compassionate release based on heightened risk of severe illness from COVID-19 infection,“ said Davina Chen, a senior federal defender in Los Angeles. Instead, the 1,600-plus prisoners granted compassionate release this year applied with the help of lawyers; a few filed requests in court on their own. Defense lawyers have a word to describe bureau-initiated compassionate release cases: “unicorns.”
After months of warning prison officials that she was high-risk, Neba tested positive for the coronavirus in July. By August, prison medical staff thought she had recovered. But then, she developed shortness of breath. She was sent to a hospital in Fort Worth, where she was shackled to her bed and told that she still had Covid-19. There, a nurse made a video call on FaceTime to show Neba to her 21-year-old daughter, Claudel Tilong, whom she hadn’t seen since March, when the federal prison system cut off visits due to the pandemic. As Tilong struggled to recognize her dying mother, now a frail woman with ashen skin and vacant eyes, a correctional officer in the room interrupted and ended the call. Tilong recalled the words: “It’s not allowed.”
With his client in worsening condition, Neba’s lawyer again begged federal prosecutors to stop opposing her release. “This is not about Neba anymore,” Newland wrote in an Aug. 17 email. “She’s dying and cannot speak to even make peace with her children if she wanted to do so.”
Still, they refused. So on Aug. 26, Newland begged the judge to end Neba’s sentence. Hours after filing that request, he learned it was too late.
Neba had died a day earlier. A nurse had called Tilong on FaceTime and, sitting in a parked car, Tilong and her 9-year-old twin brothers watched their comatose mother take her last breaths with ventilator tubes in her nose.
Sick prisoner wrote 17 letters pleading to be freed. Covid silenced him.
He was given an eleven year sentence, not a death sentence. NOBODY should die from such neglect. Authorities create this “emergency out” mechanism, but only a handful are granted! It’s BULLSHIT!
What they don’t tell you, but I know from my many contacts, is: As soon as they are out of camera range, MANY prison staff remove their masks! Yes, they are that stupid.
READ: Thousands of sick federal prisoners sought release as Covid-19 spread. Nearly all were denied.
Excerpts from the Article:
Waylon Young Bird, a 52-year-old federal prisoner with severe kidney disease, did not give up after his request for a compassionate release because of COVID-19 risks was denied in June. He wrote a letter to his judge that same week pleading for mercy. Then another a day or two later.
“I’m writing again because this morning, around 10 a.m., an inmate next to me said, ‘It’s here, Chief,’” wrote Young Bird, a Native American from South Dakota.
“It’s official now, that the first case of coronavirus is here at Springfield, Mo., medical center.”
Young Bird had been incarcerated at the facility since September 2019 on an 11-year sentence for distributing methamphetamine. The institution houses roughly 840 inmates with severe medical problems.
As the summer dragged on and the coronavirus rampaged across middle America, Young Bird kept writing to U.S. District Judge Roberto Lange.
On June 14, he wrote that he feared the virus will soon start spreading, he didn’t want to die behind bars and he longed to see his disabled sister and his four kids “who need me.” On Aug. 7, he told the judge that he found out his “aunty mom,” Joann Young Bird, had died and how he wished to attend her funeral.
And finally, in a letter dated Oct. 28, he wrote that dozens of inmates in his unit had tested positive but he was, so far, one of the lucky ones.
“I’m afraid I may be infected by the time you read this letter,” he wrote. “Please as a compassionate judge, can you help me thru this situation.” Young Bird tested positive for the virus the next day. He died exactly a week later, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
“I find it very hard to comprehend,” said one of his daughters, Casina Brewer, 26. “I just feel like he was ignored.”
Three other inmates from the Springfield facility died on the same day as Young Bird. At least seven have succumbed to the virus this month alone, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
Such an outbreak at a federal institution housing seriously ill inmates represents a nightmare scenario, experts say. “We have very vulnerable people in one place, and my experience is prison medical centers do not operate with the same level of infection control that we find in community hospitals,” said Dr. Homer Venters, former chief medical officer of the New York City jail system. “There can be devastating consequences.”
Venters, who now works as an expert consultant on health services in correctional settings, has inspected 18 state and federal prisons since the pandemic struck. The Springfield facility was not among them.
He said it’s critical for prison medical facilities to be able to isolate infected patients and still provide them with a high level of care. Yet he’s found that prisons often provide insufficient Covid-19 screening for inmates and staffers and fail to provide the proper training and personal protective equipment needed to ensure a safe environment.
“These are things that were on everyone’s radar in community hospitals by April, but my experience is prison hospitals even today are not functioning with the high level of infection control and PPE they need to protect high-risk patients,” added Venters, who is the president of Community Oriented Correctional Health Systems, a nonprofit that works to improve health care behind bars.
Since the start of the pandemic, the agency has released 17,530 inmates to home confinement.
Federal inmates can also get out of prison early through a compassionate release, which is authorized by a judge and amounts to a sentence reduction to time served. But prisoners must first file a request with the institution’s warden. After a warden denies the request or 30 days pass with no response, the inmate can then petition their sentencing judge.
According to data compiled by the Marshall Project, federal prison wardens denied or ignored more than 98 percent of compassionate release requests.
“Most of the people who are high risk in prison are still in prison,” Venters said. Young Bird wasn’t the only Springfield inmate to die from Covid-19 after being denied a request to be released from the virus-hit facility. At least two other inmates who were also suffering from kidney disease, Torrick Lyles and David Cross, also succumbed to the coronavirus after their bids were denied, according to court documents.
Young Bird was arrested in March 2018 when, during a traffic stop on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, officers found 10 grams of meth hidden in his sock in eight baggies. A federal jury convicted him on one count of conspiracy to distribute and one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
Young Bird was on dialysis for his kidney disease, his heart operated at half the normal rate and one of his toes was amputated due to diabetes, the documents say. The warden denied his request on the grounds that his condition was not terminal and his life expectancy was greater than 18 months.
As the Covid-19 crisis worsened, Young Bird petitioned the judge who had sentenced him. In his court motion, Young Bird’s attorney argued that his serious health conditions, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, amounted to an “extraordinary and compelling reason” to reduce his sentence to time served or impose a period of home confinement.
By then, Young Bird had written a letter to his hometown newspaper apologizing to those people in the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe that “I hurt through my drug and alcohol use.”
“I was addicted to methamphetamine (crystal meth) and alcohol, a legal drug,” Young Bird wrote. “Both are very hard to get off, there in the free world. I have disappointed a lot of my people, and carry a lot of shame and regret.”
“I’m very saddened by his death,” the judge added. “It’s terrible how the virus has affected inmates both in federal and in state custody, and I just wish Mr. Young Bird’s family the very best.”
Young Bird wrote Lange a total of 17 letters starting in mid-March. The prolific letter writer never mentioned, however, what he did shortly before he was arrested. Following the death of his sister, Young Bird hosted a large dinner in the South Dakota town of Dupree to honor her memory. It ended with an extraordinary act of generosity, his family members said. “He bought blankets, sweaters, socks, dreamcatchers — anything you could think of,” said his aunt Jo Lynn Little Wounded. “He just passed them all out to the homeless people in the community. It was something I’ll never forget.”
After Young Bird died, Little Wounded wanted to do the same thing to honor him.
But the virus was spiking in North Dakota. There would be no big dinner. No giveaway.
About 100 family members gathered for a graveside service last Saturday, where three singers from a nearby Indian reservation sang a prayer song before Young Bird’s body was lowered into the ground.
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