Court Opinion

ID: 9460914
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:02:30.885011+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:49.539790
License: Public Domain

BUTZNER, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
This case illustrates yet another form of deprivation of due process of law and invidious discrimination against prisoners who pursue their right of appeal* *590A state prisoner who elects not to appeal is provided non-emergency medical services deemed appropriate by prison doctors.' On the other hand, the state denies similar medical attention to a prisoner while his appeal is pending. If the prisoner has been erroneously convicted, he is released or remanded for a new trial without the medical care which the state refused to provide during his wrongful incarceration. If he was properly convicted, he receives the care to which he would have been entitled in the first place had he not appealed.
I would hold that a prisoner is deprived of due process of law 'when the state pursues otherwise legitimate policies in a manner that is calculated to burden unnecessarily his right to appeal. Furthermore, there is no rational nexus between the exercise of this right and the state’s classification of prisoners for medical purposes. Encumbrances on a right so important as appeal must be justified by more than the trifling cost and administrative inconvenience shown in this record. I would affirm also for the reasons stated in the excellent opinion of the district judge. Kersh v. Bounds, 364 F.Supp. 590 (W.D.N.C.1973).

See Blackledge v. Perry, 417 U.S. 21, 94 S.Ct. 2098, 40 L.Ed.2d 628 (1974) (felony indictment after request for do novo review of misdemeanor conviction) ; North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969) (unjustified increased sentence on retrial after habeas corpus) ; Wilson v. North Carolina, 438 F.2d 284 (4th *590Cir. 1971) (refusal to credit time served pending appeal towards commutation of life sentence) ; Cole v. North Carolina, 419 F.2d 127 (4th Cir. 1969) (refusal to credit incarceration pending appeal to sentence).