Opinion ID: 711056
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Restricted Access to the Prison Law Library

Text: 71 Mr. Nash first contends that he was denied adequate access to his institution's law library. The record indicates that in the months prior to trial he was allowed to use the library for roughly 120 to 140 hours. After trial began, Mr. Nash had access to the library for approximately five hours per week. 72 After weighing the other legal resources available to Mr. Nash, we conclude that Mr. Nash was given adequate library time prior to trial to fashion his defense. We note, first of all, that Mr. Nash was not a lay person with no knowledge of the law, but had in fact graduated from law school. He therefore had no need to learn the essentials of procedure or criminal law. Furthermore, the central legal issue of the case--whether predictive statements or statements of opinion could violate 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1014--was common to the defenses presented by all three of the defendants. With respect to this issue, therefore, Mr. Nash was able to draw upon the efforts of his co-defendants' counsel. The remaining issues relevant to Mr. Nash were not, as the district court noted, legal in nature, but turned largely on the facts of the case, which were matters within Mr. Nash's personal knowledge. Lastly, Mr. Nash had access to the skills and knowledge of an attorney appointed to assist him in the preparation of his defense and the filing of documents. 73 We are more troubled by the amount of library time allotted Mr. Nash during the trial. The prison library, apparently, is typically open only during the day; thus, a defendant who spends his or her day in court has little opportunity to visit the library during normal operating hours. This situation is hardly ideal. Nonetheless, while a prison must take steps to provide incarcerated defendants with reasonable access to legal materials, the rights of a pro se defendant must be balanced against institutional resource constraints. See Robinson, 913 F.2d at 717. Under all of the circumstances of this case, we are not prepared to hold that the access afforded Mr. Nash was unreasonably limited.