Killer will get hearing on appeal

Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2004 | 9:36 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court has ordered a hearing in District Court for convicted killer James J. Turner Jr., who says actions by state prison officials caused him to miss the deadline for filing an appeal.

Turner of Las Vegas was convicted of the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Miranda Johnson in July 2001 after he had an argument with her husband. Turner was sentenced to life in prison.

Turner was five days past the one-year deadline of July 30, 2003, when he filed his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He said the prison law library at the Ely State Prison was closed on June 30, 2003. He said he made a request on July 17 to photocopy the petition in the library but the library was still closed.

He said he finally got the photocopies and submitted the petition and the brass slips for legal postage on July 25. But then he says he was told the brass slips were incorrect despite having been approved by one correctional officer.

The Supreme Court said Friday that Turner is allowed one year to file the petition, even though he waited until the final days to have his petition copied and mailed.

"The procedures in the prison should not be implemented in such a way to prevent a petitioner, even a petitioner that waits until the eleventh hour, from filing a timely petition," said the court. "It appears that the cumulative effects of the actions taken by prison officials in the weeks preceding the filing deadline may have caused appellant's petition to be filed five days late."

The court ordered District Judge Donald Mosley to determine whether there was good cause for Turner to miss the deadline.