Legal News

Terry Nichols Wants a Lawyer . . . And A Lot More Wheat Bran

By Ashby Jones

We imagine that when you’re doing time — a lifetime of time, as a matter of fact — at ADX Florence, the so-called Supermax federal prison in Colorado, you can afford to obsess about things that bother you. Perhaps it’s the noise from an adjacent cell, or an inefficient co-worker in the chair factory (yes, ADX Florence has a chair factory), or a disagreeable guard.

If you’re Terry Nichols (yes, that Terry Nichols), it’s the food. According to this brief AP article, Nichols, sentenced to life for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, on Monday requested a lawyer to help him file a lawsuit against the prison over the quality of the food.

Rest assured, we’re not doubting that whatever it is they serve the inmates at ADX Florence probably wouldn’t win any prizes on Top Chef. But Nichols seems to have taken his dislike of the food to a whole new level.

How do we know this? Nichols filed a pro se complaint against the prison back in February — which the Smoking Gun got a hold of (click here).

Wrote Nichols, in his earlier complaint:

The ADX prison serves numerous dead and refined foods daily, causing an ongoing daily depravation [sic] of insoluble fiber and other nutrients in Plaintiff’s (et al.) diet. This is the direct cause of plaintiff’s (et al.) serious chronic medical issues that Defendants are being deliberately indifferent to. Plaintiff alleges Defendants are violating his 8th Amendment right, prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment, with this ongoing irreparable injury.

Plaintiff is compelled to consume daily those unhealthy dead and refined foods that are abhorrent to Plaintiff’s deeply held religious beliefs, causing him physical, mental and spiritual torment, and to sin against God. . . .

The relief Plaintiff seeks is: 1) a meal program of 100% whole grain foods naturally high in insoluable fiber (specially 100% whole wheat foods), 2) more fresh raw vegetables and fresh fruits, 3) supplemented with, or access to, a wheat bran product, 4) digestive bacteria and enzymes, 5) monetary relief and 6) injunctive relief to stop the ongoing irreparable injury by Defendants’ conduct. . . .

Plaintiff sincerely believes that God created mankind to consume unrefined whole foods, with its natural insoluble fiber, etc., that works in a synergistic way to keep one’s body (i.e., God’s holy temple) in good health to ward off various diseases.

According to the Smoking Gun, Nichols’s motion for a preliminary injunction on his pro-se suit was denied.

According to the AP, Nichols made the request in a handwritten legal document addressed to a federal judge in Denver Monday. He says he can’t afford an attorney, has limited legal knowledge, and that his case is complex and requires “significant research.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 23, 2009 (boomark / email).