Knight v. Superior Court In and For County of Maricopa, 1

• Decision Date: 05 September 1989
• Docket Number: No. 1,CA-SA,1
• Citation: 161 Ariz. 551,779 P.2d 1290
• Parties: William Ross KNIGHT, Petitioner, v. SUPERIOR COURT of the State of Arizona, In and For the COUNTY OF MARICOPA, The Honorable Gloria Ybarra and The Honorable Walter Jackson, judges thereof, Respondent Judges, STATE of Arizona, Real Party in Interest. 88-189.
• Court: Arizona Court of Appeals

Page 1290

779 P.2d 1290

161 Ariz. 551

William Ross KNIGHT, Petitioner, v. SUPERIOR COURT of the State of Arizona, In and For the COUNTY OF MARICOPA, The Honorable Gloria Ybarra and The Honorable Walter Jackson, judges thereof, Respondent Judges, STATE of Arizona, Real Party in Interest.

No. 1 CA-SA 88-189.

Court of Appeals of Arizona,

Division 1, Department B.

Sept. 5, 1989.

[161 Ariz. 552] William R. Knight, Phoenix, petitioner in pro per.

Thomas E. Collins, Maricopa County Atty. by John J. MacIntyre, Deputy County Atty., Phoenix, for real party in interest.

OPINION

JACOBSON, Judge.

The issue raised in this special action is whether the trial court deprived petitioner of his constitutional right of access to the courts while in jail custody awaiting trial by denying his pretrial motion for direct access to the law library, long distance telephone access to witnesses outside of Maricopa County, and for additional legal supplies to prepare his defense. Specifically, petitioner challenges the constitutionality of the "paging system" in use at the Madison Street Jail Law Library to provide inmates with legal information. ¹ For the reasons that follow, we accept special action jurisdiction but deny relief.

Factual and Procedural Background

Petitioner is presently awaiting trial on two counts of armed robbery. On August 3, 1988, the trial court granted his motion to waive counsel and proceed pro per, and appointed a deputy public defender to act as his advisory counsel.

On August 22, 1988, petitioner filed a "Motion Re: Propria Persona," seeking, among other things, a court order allowing him to have physical access to the Madison Street Jail Law Library, which is located on the 4th floor in the building where he is housed on another floor. He also requested that the county supply him with legal pads, pens, highlighters and file folders so that he could prepare his defense, that he have telephone access to witnesses outside of Maricopa County, and that he be appointed a private investigator from the Public Defender's Office. Petitioner alleges that the state did not oppose these requests. On September 2, 1988, with the exception of the appointment of a private investigator, the trial court denied petitioner's motion on the ground that petitioner's requests could be handled through the county jail's administrative grievance system. The court then denied defendant's oral motion for the use of law library, telephone use outside Maricopa County, legal supplies and discovery matters "as premature."

Petitioner brought this special action from the trial court's denial of this motion, contending he had exhausted the grievance procedure and arguing that the court had effectively denied him meaningful access to the courts. These contentions are based on the following facts.

Based upon a point system, petitioner's point accumulation places him in the highest and most dangerous security classification. However, all inmates at the jail, whether maximum security or not, are denied physical access to the law library, and must conduct legal research through a paging system. The paging system requires that petitioner must fill out an inmate request form listing specific cases or statutes, send it through the institution mail to the law library, and receive photocopies of his requests, usually within 48 hours.

The staff at the law library consists of four law clerks, all of whom are law school graduates. Because the law library is so small, it has "[a]bsolutely no room for anyone else," and a "paging system" is used to retrieve requested legal information for all inmates, regardless of their security classification. When an inmate completes a request form, the staff processes the form by locating and photocopying the requested item and returning it for distribution to the inmate, normally the same day the request is received. The law library is not a secured environment, and no inmates other than trustees are allowed direct access. Although the law clerks do not limit the amount of information distributed to an inmate, they do not provide any legal advice to inmates. They merely provide the written documents requested, with no additional research or explanation. The supervisor further testified that unless an inmate includes specific information on the request form, such as case citation, book title and author or edition, the law clerks would be unable to respond to the request. The law clerks also decide if the requested material is relevant to the inmate's case before they send it, and often request "some justification before we spend the money to duplicate this material" by asking the inmate "What is it you need this for?"

After conferencing this case, this court granted special action jurisdiction, finding that petitioner had raised a colorable constitutional claim that need not be first administratively adjudicated to be justiciable. We remanded this matter to the trial court to conduct an evidentiary hearing based on the following findings:

The court is of the opinion that the existing "paging" system at the Madison Jail Law Library is constitutionally permissible, provided the defendant is receiving adequate assistance by petitioner's appointed advisory counsel. Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977). The defendant has alleged that his advisory counsel is rendering ineffective legal research assistance. If advisory counsel is found to be adequately assisting petitioner in the preparation of his defense, no direct access to the law library is required.

We further ordered that, if the trial court found petitioner's advisory counsel to be providing inadequate research assistance, the court should explore alternative solutions, including allowing petitioner's direct access to the law library.

On January 16, 1989, the trial court held an evidentiary hearing on the issue raised by our remand. Petitioner's advisory counsel testified that "I just do not have the time to act as a law clerk for an inmate.... just the way my case load is, the number of trials, things that have to be done. It's just not workable." He suggested that the court appoint a paralegal to assist petitioner in performing research through the paging system. Petitioner objected to this suggestion, claiming that "in order to have the organization and control in my defense, and the organization and control would be me defending the case, then I would have to do the research.... I can't rely on somebody else doing my work and taking that work into court.... It's personal."

Petitioner requested that the trial court order his direct access to the library, or alternatively, that the court change venue to Pima County, where inmates have direct access to the law library. The court found that, based on the case load and duties of public defenders, petitioner's numerous and complex research requests, and that "given his other responsibilities that he [advisory counsel] is unable to adequately assist Mr. Knight in terms of providing research necessary." The court ordered that petitioner be appointed a paralegal to assist with his research, in addition to maintaining advisory counsel and his appointed investigator. The court further ordered that the jail provide to petitioner an updated list of the available books in the law library.

Following the evidentiary hearing, petitioner sought further relief in this court, claiming that the appointment of a paralegal was not a satisfactory alternative to the constitutional infirmity of the paging system, given the ineffective research assistance of his advisory counsel, and that the court instead should have granted his motion for change of venue to Pima County as a more appropriate remedy.

Special Action Jurisdiction

It is well established in Arizona that, when an inmate is denied access to the courts which is embodied in the denial of access to a law library, the appropriate remedy is to seek special action relief, which encompasses the common law writ of mandamus. Salstrom v. State, 148 Ariz. 382, 384, 714 P.2d 875, 877 (App.1986). Moreover, this issue is one of statewide importance affecting all inmates who are self-represented. We, therefore, accept special action jurisdiction.

Lack of Physical Access to the Law Library

a. The Paging System and Assistance of Advisory Counsel

In 1977, the United States Supreme Court established that the constitutional right of access to the courts requires prison authorities to assist inmates in the preparation and filing of meaningful legal papers by providing either direct access to adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law. Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977).

In applying this rule, the federal courts have consistently struck down jail procedures similar to the "paging system" used at the Madison Street Jail as constituting inadequate access to the courts. See, e.g., Morrow v. Harwell, 768 F.2d 619 (5th Cir.1985), later proceeding, 640 F.Supp. 225 (W.D.Tex.1986). The Morrow court held that an inmate bookmobile service provided constitutionally inadequate access to legal research, absent help from licensed attorneys, because no digest or other case finder system was available to help prisoners ascertain which volumes to order from the library, or to cross-reference between volumes. 768 F.2d at 622-23. See also Toussaint v. McCarthy, 801 F.2d 1080, 1109 (9th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1069, 107 S.Ct. 2462, 95 L.Ed.2d 871 (1987) (paging system "significantly impairs effective legal research"); Green v. Ferrell, 801 F.2d 765, 772 (5th Cir.1986) (paging system denied prisoner meaningful access to courts in the absence of "direct legal assistance"); Corgain v. Miller, 708 F.2d 1241, 1250 (7th Cir.1983) (paging system requirement of exact citation for photocopying characterized as a "Catch-22" in absence of assistance to refer to other reference materials); Williams v....