Help Needed for Habeas Actions!

I know many of you have heard my song and dance before, but the need is still great.

Over 8500 detainees were evacuated from the jails and prisons in Orleans, Jefferson, St Bernard, St Charles, St Tammany, and Plaquemines parishes. They were sent to jails and prisons throughout Louisiana (and some to Florida) where they remain. These detainees are: people who have finished serving their sentences and should have been released days and weeks ago; people who are charged with municipal or misdemeanor offenses (failure to pay traffic tickets, begging, obstructing the sidewalk, public intox, etc) who have been in jail for more time than they can get if convicted; people who are charged with minor felonies; people who have probation holds because they missed a payment or pissed dirty or stayed out past curfew. If they are from New Orleans, 30 out of 39 public defenders have been laid off, so most of them do not currently have an attorney – no one will be filing a motion for any of them any time soon. If they are from Jefferson, 2 public defenders have resigned and the remainder are working for ½ pay with lay offs expected by the end of the year; the minutes from Jefferson say things like: “location of defendant unknown – continued without date until defendant returned to JPSO jail.” If they are from St Bernard, the courts there have no phones and no fax and no internet and nothing is happening for their defendants.

I am attaching a table that shows how many possible habeas plaintiffs there are in each judicial district. We have prepared a form habeas, which we will send to you. We have prepared a draft Schedule A (inmates past due for release) and Schedule B (misdemeanor and non-violent felony pretrial detainees) for each judicial district, which we will send to you. Here is what you have to do:
1. Run docket master on each person on the schedules to verify that the information shown is correct and the person fits the criteria for habeas. (We have already eliminated anyone that we know to have: parole hold; crime of violence; sex offense; charged drug amount e.g. 28-200 grams etc; felon with firearm; serving sentence not yet expires.)
2. Revise the form habeas petition for your petitioners and defendants.
3. Drive to the jurisdiction, file the habeas, get it signed by a judge, serve it on the defendants.
4. Go back to the jurisdiction to have the hearing.
All together, you would be donating about 4 days of your time to handle a single habeas.

Everyone copied on this e-mail is already here and working on habeas petitions.

I understand that many of you have lost your homes, lost your offices, and are still in mourning. If you cannot do it, I understand. But if you can do it, or if you can find someone else who can do it, please let us know.

Phyllis E. Mann
Post Office Box 705
Alexandria, LA 71309
(318) 448-0000
FAX (318) 448-2250
e-mail: phyllis@kricket.net




JDC/
Location Facilities # of plaintiffs Attorney Filing Status Hearing Status
6th
Tallulah Hoyle
JBEvans
Madison
Riverbend 230 possible


26th
Plain Dealing Bossier 205 possible


18th
Plaquemine LCIW 172 possible



8th
Winnfield Winn 142 possible



1st
Shreveport Caddo
Forcht Wade 124 possible



15th
Lafayette Lafayette 122 possible
no info 93


2nd
Homer Wade
Claiborne 120 possible


36th
DeRidder Phelps 101 possible


7th
Vidalia Concordia
River 98 possible


4th
Monroe Morehouse
Ouachita
Richwood 89 possible


19th
EBR EBR 86 possible
no info 23


13th
Ville Platte Pine Prairie
So La Basile 84 possible


37th
Columbia Caldwell Corr
Caldwell Det 37 possible


5th
Oak Grove W Carroll 29 possible


10th
Natchitoches Natchitoches 17 possible


3rd
Farmerville Union 11 possible


11th
Many Sabine 6 possible
7th Catahoula No info



18th Hunt No info
BOP Coleman


28th Jena
LaSalle Attorney- Jones


20th Camp C
Camp D
Camp F, L-Z
Hospice
Rodeo
Dixon Attorneys-KilborneGarvey


33rd Allen 162 Attorneys-Mann, Jones




9th Rapides 37 Attorneys-Cohen, Widder Filed 9/13 Hrg 9/20




48 Attorneys-Walker, Jones Filed 10/14 Hrg 10/19
12th Avoy Corr
Avoy Prison
Avoy Simmes
Avoy Women’s 137 Attorneys- Walker, Jones Filed 10/18 Hrg 10/24



20th Camp F, A-L
New Chapel
New Educ
Old Bible
W. Fel 183 Kilborne Trenticosta Filed 10/24