A Virginia prisoner who suffers from hepatitis C is challenging the constitutionality of a Virginia Freedom of Information Act exemption that prevents local, state and federal inmates from obtaining any public records through the state law. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is scheduled to hear oral arguments tomorrow after a U.S. district judge dismissed the suit last year.
Joseph Giarratano, who is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, was denied copies of records about hepatitis treatment protocols for the Virginia Department of Corrections, which he sought in 2005 because of his possible claims over poor treatment of his potentially fatal illness. Giarratano is arguing that the FOIA exemption for all inmates violates his right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment.
In its reply brief, the Virginia Attorney General’s Office states that Giarratano still has access to the courts and can file suit over his medical treatment, but unfettered access to public records would result in “no end to the ability of prisoners to demand essentially any imaginable document” in pursuit of possible litigation.
In 1979, Giarratano received a death sentence after he was convicted of the rape and murder of a 15-year-old Norfolk high-school student and the murder of the girl's mother, but his sentence was commuted to life in 1991 by then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder.
In other FOIA news, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) introduced revised legislation yesterday that would make the first major changes to the federal Freedom of Information Act in more than a decade. The revised bill includes House language to require that any attorney fees awarded in a FOIA lawsuit against a federal agency be paid from annually appropriated agency funds.
The OPEN Government Act also would set stricter deadlines and penalties for federal agencies that blow deadlines for FOIA responses. The bill would clarify that FOIA applies to government records held by private contractors and would create a FOIA hotline and an ombudsman position to mediate FOIA disputes.
“We have made a strong case for the need to improve and strengthen FOIA, and there is strong, bipartisan support for doing that,” Leahy said in a statement yesterday. “This legislation helps hold politicians and government officials accountable and will strengthen our democracy.”
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