jailhouse lawyer

n. Slang
A prison inmate who is usually self-taught in the law and offers legal consultation within a prison or corrections system.

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

Jailhouse lawyers are prison inmates with some knowledge of law who give legal advice and assistance to their fellow inmates. The important role that jailhouse lawyers play in the criminal justice system has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has held that jailhouse lawyers must be permitted to assist illiterate inmates in filing petitions for postconviction relief unless the state provides some reasonable alternative (Johnson v. Avery, 393 U.S. 483, 89 S. Ct. 747, 21 L. Ed. 2d 718 [1969]).

A notable example of a jailhouse lawyer is Jerry Rosenberg, a school dropout who completed the eighth grade. He has been serving a life sentence since 1963 at the Auburn Correctional Facility in upstate New York for the murder of two New York City police officers during a holdup in 1962.

While in prison, Rosenberg has received two separate law degrees from Illinois correspondence schools. As a convicted felon, Rosenberg is unable to get a law license, but he can still make use of his legal education. In 1978 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the release of Rosenberg's fellow inmate, Carmine Galante, upon reviewing a brief filed by Rosenberg on Galante's behalf.

In June 1988, Rosenberg made news as he attempted to secure his own release with an imaginative legal argument. In 1986, Rosenberg had suffered a heart attack during open-heart surgery, and his heart had stopped beating for a short time. A patient's heart frequently stops beating during such surgery, but Rosenberg seized on the fact to argue that since his heart had stopped, he "died" while on the operating table. Therefore, he argued, he had met the requirements of his New York life sentence, and should, perhaps as a new man, be freed immediately.

Acting New York State Supreme Court Justice Peter Corning denied Rosenberg's petition. The justice agreed with New York Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Goldman's argument for the state that death is an irrevocable condition, and therefore Rosenberg has not yet died.