This is stupidity at it's finest....
From Ted Pearson:
California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections demands return of
Montell Johnson to California to die in prison.
For information contact: Ted Pearson, 312-927-2689
The California Departrment of Rehabilitation and Corrections has notified
attorneys for Montell Johnson that the State of California is demanding that
Johnson be sent back to California to die in prison. Brenda Lewis, calling
on behalf of the CDRC, called the attorneys Monday. Ms. Lewis number is
916-327-3957.
Attorneys for Montell Johnson filed an emergency motion July 16 for a
temporary restraining order to prevent Johnson's transfer to a prison in
California. Johnson suffers from multiple sclerosis. He is completely
paralyzed from the waist down and on his left side as a result of chronic
progressive multiple sclerosis, and is completely bedridden.
Johnson, through his attorneys, submitted an appeal for executive clemency
to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in November 2008. That appeal
has gone unacknowledged.
The hearing on the emergency motion for a Temporary Restrininig Order
blocking the transfer of Montell Johnson to a California prison will be
before U. S. District Court Judge Robert M. Dow in Courtroom 1919 in the
Dirksen Federal Building, 219 S. Dearborn in Chicago, at 9:15 AM Thursday,
August 6, 2009.
The Motion was in response Johnson's attorneys being informed by James
Doran, on behalf of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), that
transfer to the California prison system was going to take place shortly.
Doran is a general law counsel in the office of Attorney General Lisa
Madigan. The motion was filed by Attorneys Harold C. Hirshman and Camille
E. Bennett of the firm Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal.
Johnson cannot eat or drink and cannot perform his bodily functions. He is
fed through a tube in his stomach and evacuates through other tubes in his
abdomen. He cannot talk. Johnson almost died in November 2007 from severe
blood infections resulting from stage 4 bed sores caused by the failure of
the IDOC to care for him properly. U. S. District Judge Suzanne Conlon at
that time ordered that Johnson remain hospitalized until his condition
stabilized. 10 months later Jonson was released from the hospital and was
sent to Sheridan Correctional Center, where he is receiving special care
under a plan approved by Judge Dow, who took over the case from Judge
Conlon. His mother, Gloria Johnson-Ester, spends 8 hours a day with him at
Sheridan, five days a week, where she can monitor his care.
Ironically, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich commuted Johnson's sentence to time
served. But instead of releasing him the IDOC continued to hold him because
of a 1998 agreement between former Illinois and California Govs. Jim Edgar
and Pete Wilson. Edgar and Wilson agreed that Johnson could be extradited
for a capital trial in Illinois only on the condition that if he were not
executed, he would be returned to California.
Johnson was convicted of the murder of 1994 murder of Dorianne Warnsley in
downstate Macon County and sentenced to death. His conviction was based on
the testimony of the man who admitted to having actually committed the
murder but who testified that Johnson had instructed him to do it. Terry
Hoyt, Warnsley's mother, has insisted since the beginning that she is sure
Johnson was not guilty.
In part on that basis Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted Johnson's death
sentence to 40 years. By that time, however, Johnson had been diagnosed
with MS and was already rapidly becoming paralyzed.
Hirshman sought information regarding provisions in California for
continuing medical care for Johnson from Doran, and was told he had no
information. Both Illinois and California are in severe budget crises. The
California Prison Health System is under receivership for consistently
failing to provide adequate health care.
"There is no evidence that California can take care of Mr. Johnson, or can
even afford the care that is required; or is prepared to implement the
medical treatment protocol presented" to the Federal Court last August, the
motion notes. "The Illinois prison system no longer even has a chief
medical officer who can evaluate what California has planned for Mr.
Johnson, if anything." Judge Richard Posner, Chief Judge of the Seventh
Circuit, long ago warned that there is liability for prison officials who
throw prisoners into a snake pit. "California's prison system, especially
its medical branch, is just such a snake pit today."
The motion states, "There is no legal justification for the Department
refusing to implement the Governor's decision [to release Johnson]. Mr.
Johnson is being held without due process of law. Nor is there authority
for the Department to spend $25,000 on the medivac plane necessary to take
Mr. Johnson to California."
Mrs. Johnson-Ester is prepared to care for Mr. Johnson at her home.
Attorneys Hirshman and Bennett may be reached through at their office,
312-876-8000. Copies of the motion filed Thursday may be obtained from them
or by contacting Ted Pearson,
tpearson@naarpr.org.
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