Court Opinion

ID: 9460055
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:39:27.989031+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:27.215442
License: Public Domain

KILKENNY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. In my opinion, the prison officials w;ere under no constitutional, or other, duty to inform the appellant of the existence and possible benefits of the doctrine of “use immunity” in connection with statements that he might make in the prison disciplinary hearing. Indeed, if such a duty existed, appellant is in no position to assert it. He had the advice of retained counsel, who, we must assume, was familiar with the doctrine and, evidently, in weighing the consequences decided not to suggest its use.
Moreover, I am acquainted with no legal doctrine which would require the presence of appellant’s counsel at the time of the hearing. If, as in United States v. Ash, 413 U.S. 300, 93 S.Ct. 2568, 37 L.Ed.2d 619 (1973), a defendant charged with the crime of bank robbery is not entitled to the presence of counsel during a pre-indictment display of photographs arranged for the specific purpose of identification, I fail to understand how we, in this type of hearing in the exercise of alleged supervisory powers, can direct states to permit the presence of retained counsel. For that matter, I am unable to discover a legal principle which would require the presence of retained counsel at a hearing, and then deny to a prisoner the presence of court appointed counsel at the same type of hearing. If fundamental fairness requires the presence of counsel at one, it necessarily requires such presence at the other.
Inasmuch as I believe that the so-called Morris Rules adequately protect a prisoner’s limited fundamental rights, and that appellant’s other claims do not present issues of constitutional dimensions, I would affirm.