Donovan Blissett, a prisoner at Attica Correctional Facility in New York, filed a civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York against the New York Department of Corrections on June 6, 1984, alleging a violation of his due process rights following an internal disciplinary hearing held at the Clinton Correctional Facility. Blissett asserted that his rights were violated because he did not receive adequate notice of the charges against him and was not allowed to present evidence or witnesses on his behalf in the prison disciplinary hearing. In a July 1, 1994 order, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York (Honorable Con. G. Cholakis) granted summary judgment to Blissett on his due process claim. Judge Cholakis found that prisoners do have a due process right to notice of the charges against them when they face possible segregation from the general prison population, but do not have a constitutional right to call witnesses or present evidence. On a Motion for Reconsideration by the defendants, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment and dismissed the case. Blissett v. Coughlin, No. 84-779, 1998 WL 440025 (N.D.N.Y. July 23, 1998) (Judge Lawrence E. Kahn). Judge Kahn found that Blissett's segregation from the general population did not constitute an "atypical and significant hardship on the inmate in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life," and so did not meet the necessary standards for establishing a violation of his procedural due process rights.

Megan Raynor - 01/23/2006


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