The World's Greatest Jailhouse Lawyer
By Eric HiltonArticle Word Count: 683 [View Summary] Comments (0)
The jailhouse lawyer is a familiar figure in fiction, and like the unctuous salesman, or gruff small town sheriff, he is not merely a product of literary imagination. There are jailhouse lawyers of varying degrees of competence doing time and providing legal aid to their fellow inmates in prisons all across America.
The most highly reputed jailhouse lawyer of all was one Jerome ('Jerry the Jew') Rosenberg, who was convicted of murder in the first degree for the killing of two New York City police officers in May of 1962. He was sentenced to death, but was able to get his sentence commuted to life in prison in 1965 by then New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller. In all, he spent 46 years in three different state prisons, from February of 1963 until his death at 72 on June 1, 2009, earning himself the dubious distinction of having been incarcerated for a longer stretch than any other inmate in the New York State prison system.
Within the first four years of his prison sentence, he earned a degree from the Blackstone School of Law, an accredited correspondence school, thereby becoming the first inmate of a New York State prison to earn a law degree while incarcerated. As prison libraries stocked with legal tomes didn't yet exist in the 1960s, his family helped with his studies by bringing him law books. It wasn't until 1977 that, in reference to Bounds v. Smith, the Supreme Court deemed a prisoner's lack of access to legal research facilities a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, which says in part, "...nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without the due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Even in later years as Rosenberg gained better access to law books, being a jailhouse lawyer was not easy. These self-styled legal eagles often have to contend with retaliation from prison officials. According to a 1989 study on prison discipline, solitary confinement is a common disciplinary tactic used against jailhouse lawyers. In fact, the largest number of prisoners by far confined to "control units" are jailhouse lawyers.
Despite the many obstacles he faced, Rosenberg was able to help thousands of his fellow prisoners over approximately four decades as a practicing jailhouse lawyer, gaining release from prison or reduced sentences for many of them. In 1981, he actually argued a case in open court, before the honorable Judge Albert Rosenblatt. He was the only prison inmate ever allowed to do so.
Rosenberg played a key, but ultimately futile, role in the Attica prison riot of 1971. He drafted a brief for a court injunction against any administrative or physical reprisals from prison officials if the prisoners agreed to release their hostages and end the rebellion. The injunction was granted, but Rosenberg was not satisfied with its terms and ended up ripping it to shreds. Soon after that, the negotiations broke down completely, New York State troopers stormed the prison, and the riot was put to an end with a hail of gunfire.
Even though the Attica negotiations were not successful, Ronald L. Kuby, the former law partner of an attorney who worked closely with Rosenberg during the Attica prison riot, praised him, saying:
Of all the jailhouse lawyers, he was the greatest and the best known. He came of age in prison before there was widespread access to counsel for post-conviction proceedings.Rosenberg never succeeded in employing his legal knowledge and skills to win his own freedom. At one point, he even argued for an appeal of his case in front of the very judge who had originally sentenced him. This was the judge's wry comment:
When I send them away, they never come back. Not only did [Rosenberg] come back, he came back as a lawyer.However, for all his legal acumen and the grudging respect it won him in many quarters, Jerome Rosenberg was no saint. His arrest on the murder charges that he consistently denied was by no means his first brush with the law.
On the other hand, bad luck can befall the best of us. Almost anyone can at some time find themselves at odds with the authorities. If you or a loved one in the Santa Barbara area should be in such a situation, visit http://bailbondssantabarbara.net. to find a reputable and reliable bail bondsman in Santa Barbara to get you out of jail before you ever require the services of a jailhouse lawyer.
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Article Submitted On: November 24, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
The World's Greatest Jailhouse Lawyer
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