Thank you for logging onto our website. Following is a brief outline of the legal siuation we currently face and how it developed. Every effort has been made to present this legal argument in a manner that can be understood by all. Yet our legal system is complex and difficult to sift through and there's no getting around that. However, rest assured of this: the issue is factual and verifiable, our agument valid and defensible.

Since before WW2, federal prisons across the nation were eligible for parole. The Federal Parole Commission (FPC) is in charge of administarting this system, with parole being granted upon numerous factors: length of sentence, amount of time served, behavious while in prison, etc..

In the early 1980's, Congress, in a get-tough-on-crime attitude, decided to eliminate federal parole and began to draft legislation to do this. This process culminated with the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-473, 12 Oct 1984). This piece of legislation was signed into law and became effective on 1 November 1987.

The covert operations of the This meant that from 11-1-87 onward there would be no more parole available for newly convicted federal offenders. What about the thousands of 'old law' federal prisoners who were convicted before that date, what to do with them?

The legislation was quite specific. Chapter 2, Section 235 (b)(3) of Public Law 98-473 states, "The FPC shall set a release date, for an individual who will be in its jurisdiction after the effective date of this Act (note: 10-31-92), that is within the range that applies to the prisoner under appilcable parole guidelines."

This may sound confusing to those of you not familiar with the federal judicial system, so let me offer a brief - but accurate - explanation of the situation old law prisoners faced.

The FPC oversees federal prisoners spread all around the country. They have a book af guidelines that all their examiners use so that a person in Florida, convicted of crime X, with a sentence of Y years, is treated the same as a person in Oregon convicted of the same charge and having the same prison term. This was done to promote fairness in their system of review. For good or bad everyone was treated the same. Now, with Public Law 98-473, Congress is telling the FPC to review everyone's situation, apply their guidelines and give them a release date before the 10-31-92 deadline date they mandated. A fairly straightforward set of events.

Eventually someone at the FPC realized they'd soon be losing their jobs because there would no longer be any federal parole. They then initiated legislation (Public Law 100-182, 7 Dec 1987) that they hoped would keep them in business. This was done via section 2, number 2, of Public Law 100-182, which modifies section 235 (b)(3) of the earlier 11-1-87 law, the FPC would no longer have to set an 'applicable parole guideline' release date. What the FPC wanted to do was continue reviewing prisoners' cases periodically so they could stay in business.

Regardless of the motivation behind this second piece of legislation, it violates the ex post facto clause of the United States Consitution. This is the core issue of the of the legal argument being presented. In the US field of law the ex post facto clause means you can't legislatively grant a legal right to a group of people and then pass a new law taking that legal right away retroactively. To illustrate: it is legal to pass a law saying ther is no parole for federal prisoners after 11-1-87, but it is illegal to take away parole for people convicted in 1960, 1970, up until 11-1-87. These old law people have to be phased out of the system with the passage of time. More specifically, Congree told the FPC to set every federal prisoner's parole release date by 10-31-92 and then be done with it. To enact another law 36 days afterward to end this release process is illegal.

This violation of the law has been brought to the attention of the FPC, andthe federal courts in Washington DC and Kansas. Yet no action has been taken. This is not surprising. Although the merits (legal arguments) of the case are clear-cut and irrefutable, the courts do not wish to address this issue, not even to issue a denial, because so many prisoners are affected, so many federal employees will lose their jobs, who can say for certain? What is certain is that we languiseh in prison with little recourse but to ask for outside help.

A local lawyer has been contaced to help move this case forward in the courts. Him, and others, have done a tremendous job in obtaining funds to help pay for his services. While we still need to raise additional funds, we also need to begin to geneate Congressional support to have this matter looked into, hence the creation of this website.

The FPC, a federal agency, is knowingly and purposely violating the law and causing us to suffer. Your elected officials can make a difference and we would greatly appreciate your contacting them concerning this matter. You can ask them to look into the FPC's violation of Public Law 98-473 by sending them the first ten paragraphs of this section, and/or ask why the lawsuit filed in this matter is being ignored. The most important thing is that this issue be brought to their attention with your asking them to look into it and asking them to reply to you about it.

Thank you for any help you can give us. We've been locked up for going on 20 years and it's a difficult time for each and every one of us. We do the best we can, and I would ask that you please do the same. We have a chance, a realistic chance, to reunite with our family and loved ones, and we would deeply appreciate your help in accomplishing that goal.

Hail The Order