Lost in the courts: The Omer Harland Gallion story

Omer Harland Gallion spent nearly 15 years in prison proclaiming his innocence. In 2004, a federal magistrate reviewed his request for a new hearing and recommended that he receive a new trial or be released. Neither happened. Gallion died last year while waiting for U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson to rule on his case.

Anderson wasn’t required to rule in Gallion’s favor. In fact, it’s rare for a federal judge to grant a prisoner’s petition challenging his or her conviction. But Anderson was expected to consider the issues in a timely fashion and make a decision. Instead, he failed to act for six years, while Gallion remained in prison. The system failed in this case and in the case of at least three other prisoners whose habeas corpus petitions languished before Anderson, one of them for nearly nine years.

Part of the problem is that the federal courts are overburdened. In California’s Central District, too few judges are assigned to handle too many cases. Looming budget cuts and rules requiring judges to give priority to criminal cases over prisoners’ petitions have strained the system. But that’s no excuse for the kind of delay Gallion was subjected to.

Currently, the federal courts track cases that have been pending for more than three years, but don’t require that any action be taken. Also, federal courts can create district-by-district rules to address the huge dockets and prevent delays, but they often offer only limited relief and fail to address the swelling caseloads. In California’s Central District, for example, inmates may file joint motions with prosecutors challenging a judge’s delay in ruling after three months. But for a prisoner such as Gallion, who represented himself because he couldn’t afford an attorney, such a motion is both difficult to file and less likely to succeed.

The courts have an obligation to ensure that such cases are handled efficiently and fairly. One way to achieve that would be to establish a narrow rule that would apply only to those state post-conviction cases in which a magistrate has issued a recommendation to grant a new trial or release. Judges would have such cases flagged for them and then have up to one year to issue a decision. Those who needed additional time despite receiving the recommendation would be required to file an explanation with the chief judge in the district.

Whether Gallion’s case had merit is unclear, but surely he deserved better than to be ignored by the courts.