Legal Ethics
Successful Jailhouse Lawyer Investigated for Unauthorized Practice
Posted Feb 27, 2008, 08:26 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A “jailhouse lawyer” who persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a sentencing challenge by a fellow prisoner is being investigated for practicing law without a license.
Michael Ray, a former paralegal who is in prison in connection with a fraudulent real-estate financing scheme, was in the news earlier this month when the high court agreed to review a cocaine sentence based on Ray’s arguments. At issue is whether a previous offense by the defendant, Keith Lavon Burgess, qualified as a prior felony mandating a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence.
Ray’s lawyer, Rauch Wise, confirmed that the South Carolina Attorney General’s office is investigating his client for unauthorized practice, the Associated Press reports.
"I sit there and do all this work, and I never get the Supreme Court to grant" my cert petitions, Wise told AP. "He may be a better lawyer than I am."
Federal prison regulations say an inmate may assist another with legal research and the preparation of legal documents.
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Posted by jackie - 6 months, 1 week, 3 days, 1 hour, 2 minutes ago
It is sad that someone with more education and a legal background can not assist fellow inmates with their case without risking these kind of charges. Access to licensed attorneys whether public or private is so hard to get inside. I speak from experience. As soon as it was leaked I was in law school everyone wanted advice or help with the legal materials we had access to. I was afraid to help because I didn’t want to be misconstrued as “practicing without a license”. We choose this profession because we want to help but then find more often then not we can’t.