Affidavit in Support of Petitioner's Motion for Production of Trial Transcripts

    ^4.- '^.,

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRIC.T COURT

rOR THE !,IIDDLE DISTRICT OF ALABAMA

MON?GOMERY DIVISION

x

II{AGGIE S. BOZEMAN, :

Petitioner, :

against- :

EALoN M. LAMBERT, JACK c. LUFKTN - civil Action No'

and 'JOHN T. PORTER, IN THEIR
OFFICIAL CAPACITIES AS MEMBERS :
OF THE ALABAMA BOARD OT
PARDONS AND PAROLES, And TED :

BUTLER, A PROBATION AND PAROLE
OFF'ICER, EMPLOYED BY THE ALABAMA :
BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLES,

:
Respondents.

x

AEFIDAVIT IN SUPPORT OF PETlTIONERI S I{OTION
FOR PRODUCTION OE TRIAL TRANSCRIPTS

C. Lani Guinier, being duly sworn, states:

1. I am an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and

Ed,ucat,ional Fund, Inc., and am one of the attorneys representing

petitioner in the above-captioned matter.

2. In November L982 I contacted, by telephone, Ms.

Elise Smith, the court reporter of record during petitioner's

trial in Pickens County, Circuit Court, State of Alabama v.

Maggie S. Bozeman, No. CC-77-LO9 (Circuit Court, Pickens County,

Nov. L-2 , 19 79 ) .

3. I requested, a copy of the transcript of the

prosecutor's closing argument. Thereafter, I wrote to Ms. Smith,



,-
?'

confirming my telephone request and asking that she expedite

the matter, offering to Pay in advance, if necessary' Since

December L982, Siegfried Knopf, who is also an attorney reP-

resenting petitioner, and I have renewed the request, Ett Ieast

once per month, to court reporter !i!s. Elise smith, asking that

the transcripts of the closing arguments be mailed to me-at

the offices of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund,

Inc., for the appropriate fee. The transcripts of the closing

arguments sti1l have not been provided, although Ms. smith has

repeatedly promised to furnish them'

4. The District Attorney of Pickens County ' Mr' P ' i{'

Johnston, has refused to furnish copies of the notes of out-of-

court interrogations he conducted to build his case against

petitioner. In a letter, dated June 2L, L982 addressed to Mr'

solomon S. Seay, Jr., one of petitionerrs attorneys at t'rial,

attached hereto as Exhibit A, Mx. ,Johnston made clear that no

requests for the notes would be honored even though he was aware

that the out-of-court statements would be of use to maintaining

a collateral attack on petitioner's conviction'

5. The refusal to provide these materials is unexcusable

and unreasonable, and has prevented Petitioner's attorneys from

making a complete review of petitioner's triaI, and thus has

potentially caused the petition for a writ of habeas corPus filed

in the above-captioned matter to be incomplete by failing to

raise aII Possible meritorious objections to petitioner's confine-

ment.

Rule 5 of the Rules Governing section6. Pursuant to

-2-



2254 Cases in the

should be ordered

attached notioa.

Subscribed to and

United Statee

to furnish all

District Courts, reEpondentg

materials requested in the

ne .this J6tv

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h!r.t'. . Li:..{ li. l.nj5t
,i':r;;,' ;)::rri,:, St:fe tf :je.y i,lt

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lj.:.:i.l ;,: ii: ...; -.,t: i;,

1r,..,,:..i,,i, i,i;i.:, l,::;;,iji''!n a{

sworn before

of, May 1983

C. Lani GuinLer

Notary PubLic

-3-



P. M. JOHNSTON
OISTATCT ATTORNEY
P.O. BOX&2
ALIC€YILLE AIIBAYA 33/..11

TELEPHONE
oFRCE2O5ET:I{3!n lalltto

(

STATE OF ALABAMA
OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY

TWENTY.FOURTH J UD]CIAL CIRCUIT

OFALABAMA
FAYETTE. LAMAR, PICKENS COUNTIES

June 21, 1982

tlr. Solomon S. Seay, Jr.
GRAY, SEAY & LANGFORD
Attorneys at Law
352 Dexter Avenue
Montgomery, Alabama 36104

Re: State of Alabama vs.
State of Alabama vs.

Dear Mr. Seay:

After reflecting on the present status of Bozeman and
WiLder, I have decided not to iurnish the requested depositions.
f believe that any use of these depositions to initiate a Ccram
:I{cbis proceeding would at this point only serve to extend the
time of confinement

I realize that you have your clients' interests and other
pressure to consider, and for that reason you may not be able
to withhold further action. However, for whatever it is worth
to your rny reasoning goes this way: At this point I have no
compelling reason to oppose the first parole date which will
ordinarily come up. I would also ask that Wilder be released
at the same time as Bozeman even though her parole date would
ordinarily be later.

On the other hand, if there is further pressure applied
to the Court, the Board of Pardons & Paroles, or to the Governor,
which seeks to have these cases handled in anything but a
routine manner, then f could be forced to oppose parole at every
step. As far as I know, there has been no request made to the
Board of Pardons & Paroles to deny parole; and there has been no
publicity given to any recent requests for early release. However,
I can vi.sualize the situation changing drasticly with a few press

RELETuTD J'UN 2 3lt8u

Julia Wilder
Maggie Bozeman



P. M.JOHNSTON
OI3?FICT ATTOFIEY
P.O.80X.{t
rucEur I gAtla^l.A Sgaa:l

TELEPHONE
oFFlcE2oc6T:t4n t{lllo

I

STATE OF ALABAMA
OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY

TWENW.FOURTH JUDICIAL CI RCUIT

OFALABAMA
FAYETTE, T.AMAR, PICKENS COUNTIES

Page Two:
June 2L, L982

conferences and headlines.

From my point of view, it would be foolish for me to
furnish you l.rith the ammunition to shoot at me in a Coram Nobis
proceeding; ahd it would be counter-productive foi you to use it.
Bozeman and WiLder would both be out long before we got through
arguing the issues.

Yours very truly,

PM.J /fe

cc: Mr. J. L. Chestnut, Jr.
CHESTNUT, SAI{DERS & SA}IDERS
1406 Jeff Davis Avenue
P. O. Box 1305
Selma, Alabama 3670I