Will prison officials allow Wayne Fincher to attend wife’s funeral?
From David Codrea, at Gun Rights Examiner:
Paul W. Davis shares some sad news:
It is with great sorrow and regret that I must inform you of the passing of Linda Fincher, Wayne Fincher’s wife. She passed away sometime early in the morning, the 28th of August at her home. At this time the cause of death is determined to be a seizure. She was alone at the time. Miss Linda had been suffering from seizures for some years now.
I am requesting your prayers for the family, particularly for Wayne and the daughters, Connie and Carol Ann. It was ever Miss Linda’s concern that she would not see Wayne come home. Sadly, that concern has come true.
Long-time readers of the War on Guns blog will recall Fincher, a lieutenant commander in the Militia of Washington County (AR), was convicted of possession of an unregistered machine gun in a trial where the judge would not allow the Constitution to be mentioned in his defense. Click here to access an extensive archive that chronicles his struggles, and click here, to read “The Silver Bullet,” a document he co-authored that “clearly demonstrates how the National Firearms Act of 1934 is a criminal fraud and levy of war.”
Friend and supporters of the Wayne and Linda Fincher write that they:
[C]alled Judge Hendren who tried Wayne and asked him to request Wayne’s release for the funeral. The judge said he could not do that in his purview but that he would recommend Wayne’s furlough if the prison officials asked his opinion.
The judge did say that if an attorney would call the prison on Hollis Wayne Fincher’s behalf that could probably be of some help.
A Fincher daughter asks via email:
Can anyone help us?
We can try. While nothing formal has been established as the best way to make Wayne’s furlough happen, if we sit around waiting for someone to organize things, it won’t. My recommendation: Fincher is housed at FCI Forrest City Low, which is part of the Federal Bureau of Prisons system. The Acting Director is Thomas R. Kane.
I have three suggestions:
First, send an immediate email to info@bop.gov with a message along the lines of this:
“Attn: Thomas R. Kane: Hollis Wayne Fincher (Register # 07863-010), scheduled for release in August, 2012, has been a peaceful inmate for the duration of his incarceration, and his sentencing to a lower-security institution shows the government recognizes this. The passing of his wife while he is behind bars has been another crushing blow to this man who had never been arrested prior to his conviction, and who in fact had lived a life of patriotism, character and courage of convictions.
In the name of decency and humanity, please allow him to attend the funeral of his beloved wife and embrace his surviving family members at this tragic time. Any factual assessment of his conduct and state of health must convince you that he poses no risk if you permit this, and if you ask Judge Hendren his position, he has indicated he will recommend furlough.”
Second, make an immediate call, email or fax to Fincher’s congressional representatives asking them to contact Acting Director Kane and pass on their personal plea that he be allowed to attend his wife’s funeral. Note that contact forms do not provide for out-of-district correspondence. They are:
House: Steve Womack
Senate: John Boozman and Mark Pryor
As Fincher is in a federal facility, I did not include Governor Mike Beebe, although feel free to contact him as well if you think he can be influential in this.
Third, contact local AR media, including newspapers, news radio and television stations and ask them to report on this story and/or/editorialize in favor of allowing Fincher to attend his wife’s funeral.
If anyone has a more helpful and effective plan, please weigh in with a comment. I will provide an update when further information becomes available, including time and place of the funeral.
UPDATE: Attorney Quentin M. Rhoades just sent the following:
Dear Warden:
I am an attorney for Hollis Wayne Fincher, ID No. 07863-010, who is an inmate at “Forrest City Low” at Forrest City Federal Correctional Complex (FCC) in Forrest City Arkansas. This email is for Counselor Ortiz, with whom I left a voicemail message today, or anyone else with whom I should be communicating with on this subject at hand. I ask you to please route this communication to the appropriate person.
We are seeking compassionate release or furlough for Mr. Fincher, pursuant to18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(1)(A) & 4205(g), to attend the funeral of his recently passed wife. I see from your website that such release is available. http://www.bop.gov/inmate_programs/temp_release.jsp. We simply need to know better how to ask for it. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
NOTE FROM STEWART RHODES:
Oath Keepers, the family of Wayne Fincher needs your help in putting POSITIVE pressure on the above noted public servants to allow Mr. Fincher to attend his wife’s funeral, scheduled for this Thursday, September 1, 2011. Wayne has lost the love of his life, with whom he hoped to be reunited when released. He needs to be at her funeral. Please follow David Codrea’s advice and use his recommended points and language. Keep your messages focused on the justice of letting Wayne be there, and keep it professional and done in a manner that will help. And that means keeping the focus on getting him the furlough he needs to attend his wife’s funeral, not on venting your anger at his incarceration, or the manner in which he was tried. Here is an excellent example, from retired Las Vegas Metro Police Lt. Don Charleboix, who just emailed the following to the prison Director:
“Thomas R. Kane: Hollis Wayne Fincher (Register # 07863-010), scheduled for release in August, 2012, has been a peaceful inmate for the duration of his incarceration, and his sentencing to a lower-security institution shows the government recognizes this. The passing of his wife while he is behind bars has been another crushing blow to this man who had never been arrested prior to his conviction, and who in fact had lived a life of patriotism, character and courage of convictions.
In the name of decency and humanity, please allow him to attend the funeral of his beloved wife and embrace his surviving family members at this tragic time. Any factual assessment of his conduct and state of health must convince you that he poses no risk if you permit this, and if you ask Judge Hendren his position, he has indicated he will recommend furlough.”
Lt. Donald Charleboix Ret. Las Vegas Metro Police Dept.
Please do likewise, and send an email in support of granting the furlough.
Stewart Rhodes
PS – Please also leave comments over at David Codrea’s Gun Rights Examiner site, and visit there often. David is a big supporter of Oath Keepers, a friend, and a card of a man. You will find no stauncher defender of the right to bear arms.
Please donate and support Oath Keepers mission, every little bit helps!
August 30th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Somebody please explain to me how a judge can disallow any mention of The Constitution in a defense. And while you’re at it, please explain how judges can refuse to instruct juries of their full ‘jury rights’ and refuse the defense permission to even mention same in other cases – and how either of these things can even be legal. WHERE does a judge derive the legal ability to disallow any kind of a defense before it can be heard by a jury, or to ignore informing a jury of their rights to ‘refuse to convict’ and to prohibit a defense attorney from mentioning it?
August 30th, 2011 at 8:30 pm
rev dave, I appreciate your questions. There is no acceptable answer for your questions. The Federal government seems to be hell-bent on making a travesty of lawful justice in this nation. There are a number of tax-honesty patriots sitting in jail right now because the Court will not allow the U.S. Constitution entered as part of a defendant’s defense.
To go into this with would require many pages of researched documentation, which I do not have time to compile for you, but I can say that the American judicial system is broken badly and is wildly divergent from its original purpose. There is very little justice left in America for the little guy, the average American citizen, while any sitting President can violate his Oath any time he chooses with no punishment for so doing. This nation has devolved into a pseudo-police state on behalf of the Corporate Dynasty, and we little people are now being assaulted on a regular basis by a berserk government which serves the interest of elite power players both in Washington D.C. and in the City of London, as well as on Wall Street.
However, if we squawk about it we are then classified as “extremists” or worse and in some cases are demonized as well as persecuted for speaking out about it.
This is but one reason why Oath Keepers exists. Thank you for your support of Oath Keepers and our mission, which is to restore the Republic as a lawful entity of self-governance. And beware – things are going to get much worse for we little folks before they get better, if they ever do. But I salute you for bringing up good questions, and especially for mentioning the power of the fully informed jury, which is one of our last lines of defense against Federal tyranny.
http://fija.org/
Salute!
Elias
August 30th, 2011 at 11:24 pm
rev. Dave
I have no answer to your question but I do know from conversations with attorneys in a non professional relationship that that attorneys in Alabama are forbidden to mention jury
nullification by the bar association.
Tom
August 31st, 2011 at 2:37 pm
Email sent. It was the least I could do. I hope it’s not too little, too late.
August 31st, 2011 at 11:28 pm
I am stunned. I simply have no words to describe how earth-shattering it is for a Patriot to be wrongfully imprisoned while his wife dies.
My wife went blind while I was recalled to Active Duty in 2009 and I went completely crazy.The Army released me on a “hardship discharge”, but every single day after knowing of my wife’s pain was like a dagger in my heart.And it took the Army 14 days to get me home to my struggling wife while I cried myself to sleep every night that I couldn’t be with her.
And I can’t possibly imagine how horrible it must feel for Wayne Fincher.
My heart truly goes out to that man, and I salute you, Wayne Fincher.
I sincerely ask; What can I do as an OathKeeper?
Just say the word and I will do anything in my power for this man.
So help me God.
August 31st, 2011 at 11:48 pm
I sent an email to Governor Mike Beebe in reference to this.
At this point- I will email all that I have to, as this appears to be the only thing I CAN do right now.
I wish I could do more.
If there is anything else that I can possibly do,please let me know and if there is any way that I can do anything else, I will.
September 7th, 2011 at 9:18 pm
Any judge can do that according to ‘defacto’ law, which we unwittingly submit ourselves to when we get our drivers lciense or any other official government document. Since several decades ago, all cities ‘incorporated’ and so did the USA. Corporate citizens operate under a different ’set of rules’. Look at your drivers license. Is it all caps? You are officially a ‘corporate’ citizen, subject to corporate laws.
There is a way to return to ‘dejure’ status and be able to operate in bothr realms, and be able to request a trial by a jury of your ‘peers’ (’dejure’ citizens). It takes enough people in each county to form a jury pool that are recognized as dejure citizens of the USA (United States of America; NOT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA) There is plenty of legal evidence of this.
Melt Esquibel in Chubbuck, Idaho may be of some help. He has researched defacto vs dejure law, and has started a movement to get citizens more aware of this, and to start building jury pools in Idaho, and eventually nationwide. He has been recognized by the State of Idaho. Idaho went back to dejure (UPPER and lower case spelling in some of their documents). It was done by state statute as I understand, and was vigorously opposed by a lawyers group if I remember correctly.
September 7th, 2011 at 9:21 pm
Update to the previous post: here is a website to get more information:
http://www.citizensofidaho.com/
September 7th, 2011 at 9:22 pm
For more information about ‘defacto vs dejure:
http://www.citizensofidaho.com/
February 8th, 2012 at 3:37 am
Iam Wayne Fincher’s Niece I want to let everyone know that my Uncle Wayne was released from Prison yesterday 2-7-2012 he is now in a Half Way House in Little Rock Arkansas. He will stay there for 30 to 90 days before released to the Family.
I want to Thank everyone for the Support you have shown him since his Incarceration. Maybe now Uncle Wayne can Grieve for my Aunt Linda in Peace without being behind bars.