Court Opinion

ID: 9883460
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 01:43:08.922399+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:23.582742
License: Public Domain

ALBRIGHT, Justice,
concurring in part, dissenting in part.
(Filed Dec. 5, 2003)
Although I agree that an incarcerated person has no entitlement under our ease law or post-conviction habeas corpus rules to obtain court or other public records in order to perfect a habeas corpus petition, I must dissent to the majority’s unfounded conclusion that incarcerated persons may not employ the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (hereinafter referred to as “FOIA”) to obtain court records for such purposes.
The express purpose of FOIA is to enable persons1 to access public records held by governmental agencies, which obviously in-eludes courts. W.Va.Code §§ 29B-1-1, 29B-1-3. Had the convicted persons in this matter, like any other person, supplied or guaranteed payment for the requested information and otherwise met the statutory requirements, I see no basis in the provisions of FOIA for denying the request. Thus the majority clearly has overstepped judicial bounds by engrafting a new prerequisite for obtaining public information under FOIA. As a practical matter, the judicially created exception to FOIA may be readily circumvented by the incarcerated requestor either not stating an intended use for the information, which the statute does not require, or having a relative or friend request the information for them.
Since I find no sound basis in law or reason in the majority’s clear implication that FOIA cannot be used by a person merely because he or she has been convicted of a crime, I have no choice but to respectfully dissent in this regard.

. The term "person” is defined within FOIA to include "any natural person, corporation, partnership, firm or association.” W.Va.Code § 29B-1-2 (1977) (Repl.Vol.2002). The Legislature has also provided in its rules for construing statutes that “[t]he word ‘convict’ means a person confined in the penitentiary of this or any other state, or of the United States.” W.Va.Code § 2-2-10(o) (1998) (Repl.Vol.2002) (emphasis added).