Loud & Clear Sept. 9,2010
This will be a long blog! Though it is important, Thanks for reading it. There is so much I desire to write about, though the most important issues first. I will have a couple blogs getting posted back to back, within the next week.
Nothing these people do has really ever amazed me, though they have managed to reach a new low. On August 30th, the cell search team arrived at my door. I saw that they had property boxes with them. All of our personal property, excluding electronics & shoes, goes into this box. It is 2 square feet. They mainly used it during unit lock downs. Legal materials always stayed out of the box. Suddenly policy has changed, during the last major shake down in July. (During unit lock down they search the entire prison. We call it “shake down”.) Some people had conflicts over their property. They were told that they had to submit for a legal box. This is a box which is given to an inmate to hold excessive legal material, that doesn’t normally fit in the allowed space. The allowed space has always been the property locker, under the bunk in our cells. Recently, inmates were told to submit for a legal box. Only a few was. I was NOT told to. I heard people discussing the legal boxes. Death row wasn’t allowed to get them, for a couple years. I decided on my own to try to obtain one. I requested to have a legal box from the law library, which controls such matters. They sent me a 5 page document to fill out & return to them. NO WHERE on the document does it say I had to return it in 45 days.
Some of the form made no sense to me, so I asked an inmate that worked in the law library. He told me that if my legal material did not fill up the big locker under my bunk, I would be denied. At the time I did not have the proper amount of legal material. I knew I had transcripts & exhibits from the past court appearances, as well as legal books coming. I decided to wait until I received all of that to file the paperwork, as I would then be able to be approved; because I filled for the paperwork, but did not turn it in. The cell search team showed up at my door. It was determined that I was denied for the legal box, EVEN THOUGH I never even turned in the paper work. That fact earned me a denial. So as a result of this denial, it was determined that I could only have 2 square feet of property period! Be it personal or legal material. The cell search gets to my door. I am of the thought they are only going to measure my ‘personal’ property. That’s the impression they gave me. I throw out some stuff I didn’t need. Get everything else in order so it will fit easily in the property box. So I don’t loose any of my property. After all is in order. I get strip searched, handcuffed & come out of my cell. One of the officers begins putting legal material into the box. I ask why, as legal material has always stayed OUT of the box. He said you can only have two square feet. So I think ok. No big deal. I got two square feet of each. What made me also think this was the fact they actually carried 2 property boxes with them. One turned out to be a prop. 🙁
After they got my legal material into the box, they start putting personal property in the same box, cramming it in there. Now my mind is spinning. They all start to look at each other, then one officer rubbing his head says, “Man, Young you got to much property.” So I state, “You got my legal material in there! He THEN informs me that it ALL has to fit into the box.
Now I’m getting mad. They call for the ranking officers. A sergeant & lieutenant come to the pod. The lieutenant is trying to make jokes. So I just stare at him. He tells me to relax; he is just trying to make the situation light. I tell him “Aint a fuckin thing light about you taking my property!’ He tells me it isn’t up to him. It’s the higher rank. The ranks go in this order from low to top on a unit, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, major assistant warden & then warden. I announce that I could get in trouble & get the same punishment now when I am not getting in trouble. We go back & fourth. A sergeant starts talking to me & he explains the situation to me like all I have to do is fill out an I-60. (This is a form an inmate fills out to communicate with various officials.) & he would take it to the law library & once I get approved I will get my stuff back. He gave me a time line of 48-72 hours. So now the choice is to be made. Do I send out most of my legal material, or all of my personal property or what? I think in my mind that I have a much better chance to get my legal material back, then my personal property, as we have more rights when it comes to legal material. At least we used to. So I have them take most of my legal material. Though ONLY under the belief that I will get it back soon.
The next day at mail call I get my I-60 back. The official in the law library says I am denied, that I had 45 days to submit paper work. So I write him another I-60 & tell him I was never told this, send me the paperwork again & I will submit it. He responds to that I-60 that I had 45 days & to RESUBMIT in 90 days. This means that I can not obtain ANY more property for 90 days! 90 DAYS! The officer who is nothing but a law library official has basically put me on a form of property restriction. Now here is where the fuel for my anger comes from. I was lied to! Had I known all this in advance I would have handled the situation differently. The cell search team lied to me. They manipulated me to get me out of my cell. Then the sergeant lied to me. See I also lost my hot pot & etc as the bottom had broke off when it fell off my sink. So I just lost all the way around! I could have refused to out of my cell. They would have pepper sprayed me & ran the five officers in riot gear into my cell. I would have went to level 3, which I would have been on disciplinary level for 90 days. While on disciplinary level we can not have commissary items & etc. So I would have only gotten my legal material. After the 90 days, I would have been able to get my personal property back. Once I made level one, which the 90 day point would be met for re-filing for a legal box. So in short the ONLY thing I would have lost would have been my hot pot. Though, they would have earned taking that with being covered in pepper spray with me & having to do a whole bunch of paperwork. As I would not have made it easy on them! So now I am having to argue & go back & forth with ranking officers about my property. No one told me I had to file for permission to have extra space. Here is what is so stupid about it all. If I got approved they STILL would not have gave me the stupid box! Only permission to use up more of the space that is ALREADY in my cell!!! It makes no sense!
I have an on-going appeal so I need all of my legal material. It is a direct attack on us on death row. Others faced the same situation. However mine was different in that NO ONE told me to file for any paperwork for a legal box. Plus I was lied to. I do not like that at all. So now I have one of my most vital appeals up & coming. Also in the near future, am going to have to meet with the investigator I need to complete some tasks, & possibly a civil lawyer & guess what? No legal materials to be able to present to them. However thankfully I am kind of a smart guy. I already predicted that a situation could develop, that would end with me separated from my legal material, be it due to me protesting & getting pepper sprayed & etc or whatever. So I always had copies sent to Katie. As well as a copy of my trial record. It does hinder me from helping my lawyers with my appeal, though not with the investigator & such. I am not done with this situation, so I shall see how it all turns out.
Onto other topics, the investigators. It was posted that I needed the funding to help cover the cost of the investigator. He has been in contact with Katie. There are two investigators that I need, as one lives in west Texas, So actually due to the complex nature of my case. It’s CHEAPER to retain two then to just use the one, as he would have to travel more. Plus the other investigator knows me personally & knows my case. She sat though my trial. She was a legal assistant on my case while going to trial. The prosecutor of Midland threatened to press charges on her. He was indicating that she was doing work she was not licensed for which was the work of a criminal investigator. She was not doing anything wrong. What’s worse is she knew & had worked with these prosecutors for years, though she worked for defense lawyers. She is well known in that regions legal community. She done nothing different on my case, then any other case she worked on. The difference was how hell bent the prosecutors were on sending me to death row, they was trying to block my lawyers at every step in fighting my case. She even testified to this fact at previous hearing years ago. Though as a result of the prosecutor threatened her with criminal charges, she went & obtained her investigator license. She attended my recent appeal hearings, to be able to keep up with everything & talk to me. I have a lot of love & respect for this women & I trust her. It is extremely rare that I ever state I trust anyone. I normally just say, I have faith in them. My time to achieve the desired results is getting slimmer.
Let me focus on the amount of funding I am seeking. If I didn’t need it, it wouldn’t be asked for. It is that simple. One investigator I am in contact with isn’t the cheapest, though quality doesn’t come cheap, he is from Houston Texas. Now, my lawyers & etc read my blogs & such. These are people whose opinions I value. People I care about & also care about me. If I were asking for something I didn’t need & lying, then I would have to sit in front of my lawyers & personal friends & explain why I would do such a thing. More so when they respect me for my honesty & they have faith in the choices I make when it comes to my case. To me that is not an option! I might in the end loose my life; I can’t control that if it happens. Though I can control how I carry myself. I am not going to loose respect, those that care about me, have for me. My lawyers can not deal with anything outside of what they were appointed for. They can lose their jobs, if they did, as they aren’t normal kind of attorneys. They are employed by the federal government. So in order for me to get what I need done, outside of my appeal they directly deal with, then I have to get that help elsewhere. After the investigators obtain the information that is needed, then the next step begins.
An Additional development is this; a human rights lawyer has agreed to look at my case. He is able to do work with human rights counsel with the Geneva Convention. I have to be able to cover his traveling expenses, as he needs to meet with me. That’s all, why I need the funding. I really do not like to go all into details out in the open of all I am working on, though I want those reading my words to have confidence in me.
My mail has been extremely slow. I only received one jpay today (sept.9.10) It was from Sandra & dated the 7th! So I was supposed to have gotten it on the 8th at the latest. I received no letters today. On Wednesday I received no jpays at all. I did get a couple letters.
There has, as well been some positive developments in France with some key figures taking interest in my case. Stephanie has really worked hard, as have all the others. Sandra got the human rights lawyers to look at my case. I am waiting on word from two other lawyers to look at my case here in the U.S.A.
My book is three quarters way completed. I will be done within two weeks. Then it has to be edited, which should take a month. I might send half to one person & half to another so that they can get it finished faster. As they complete portions of it, email it to others to be translated. I might not meet my October 15th deadline. First week of November seems more likely. The company I am going though, it will be available on amazon.com & etc eventually. My other book is partially done.
I am fighting my case, writing two books at once, reading 3 different books, writing my friends & also trying to not go insane. And women say men cant multi-task! 🙂 Though, I like to get things done fast. I believe taking my time with only two things in life, making love & holding babies! 🙂
Times ticking, so I got to get back to working.
veni vidi VICI!
In solidarity
Polunsky Unit
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston, Texas, 77351
Copyright © 2010, Clinton Lee Young, All Rights Reserved