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DOC blamed for convict’s failure to file his appeal
Prisoner hospitalized after he jumped from DOC balcony
A man who was slapped in September 2013 with a five-year prison term for possession of less than two grams of methamphetamine or “ice” now claims that he failed to file an appeal because Department of Corrections personnel refused his requests to use a telephone to talk to his lawyer.
Xu Guang Li, through assistant public defender Matthew Meyer, asked the Superior Court to immediately release him from DOC or be allowed to file an appeal.
In his petition for habeas corpus filed in court on Wednesday, Li named DOC Commissioner Ramon Mafnas as defendant.
In the petition, Meyer claimed that Li has been unlawfully imprisoned or restrained since Oct. 18, 2014, in DOC.
Li, 36, was convicted on the charge of illegal possession of a controlled substance during a bench trial on Sept. 5, 2013.
On Sept. 17, 2013, Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho sentenced Li to five years in prison without the possibility of parole.
In the petition, Meyer disclosed that Li jumped from a second floor balcony at DOC, fracturing his spinal vertebrae and must now be transported by wheelchair.
Meyer said Li, under a 24-hour guard, spent time at the Commonwealth Health Center from Sept. 22, 2013, to Oct. 24, 2013.
“Although he repeatedly requested permission to use the telephone to communicate with his attorney and ask his attorney to file an appeal on his behalf, DOC personnel refused his requests,” Meyer said.
He said Li’s right to appeal was illegally denied because, being in the hospital for five days after his sentence was handed down, he was thereafter disallowed use of telephone by DOC until after his right to appeal had elapsed.
He said Li is entitled to file an appeal now even though it’s over a year after his sentencing.
“Petitioner is being held in custody without lawful authority,” Meyer said.
