OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday rejected the legal requests of two men ordered back to prison in 2014 after being wrongly released because state officials had routinely miscalculated sentences.
The rulings in the appeals of Abdul Al-Ameen and Thomas Evans were consistent with previous Nebraska Supreme Court decisions in similar appeals stemming from the miscalculated sentences.
Al-Ameen argued that a lower court was wrong to order his arrest and return to prison. But because Al-Ameen has since been released prison, his motion seeking release was moot, the high court said Friday in dismissing his appeal.
The state’s high court also upheld a lower court’s denial of a similar challenge by Thomas Evans, who alleged that returning him to prison after releasing him violated his rights. The high court rejected that argument, saying prison officials first made a case to a judge that Evans had not served his full sentence. Even after his arrest, the high court said, Evans was given an evidentiary hearing so he could argue for his release.
“The governmental function was the re-arrest and re-incarceration of Evans who had been erroneously discharged 2 ½ years before his mandatory release date,” Justice John Wright wrote for the court. “We conclude that the re-arrest and re-incarceration of Evans did not offend due process because Evans had not completed his sentence and did not yet have a right to be free from confinement.”
Al-Ameen and Evans were among 750 inmates who had their prison stays recalculated in 2014 after it was learned that state prison officials had been incorrectly setting early release dates for nearly two decades. Of those 750, nearly 200 already had been released early. The state returned about 40 to custody, including Al-Ameen and Evans.
An attorney for both men, Jerry Soucie of Lincoln, said the Friday rulings will affect other inmates who were ordered back to prison.
“I’m disappointed we weren’t able to resolve this in state court,” Soucie said, adding that some prisoners will now likely have to turn to the federal courts in an effort to seek relief.
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