Day 117: The Lights and the Law
- mainemoviepirate
- Mar 2
- 2 min read
Original Entry: Sunday, 10/17/21
Morning: Lights on at 7:30 AM—blindingly bright and totally unnecessary.
Daytime: Worked on re-typing WD (likely a legal document/brief). Spent time in the library researching and trying to "tackle Barbell" (my novella project).
Afternoon: Helped J.K. with the napkin wear; observed that knives were getting thin—"Sporks in our future".
Evening: Supper was "Beef (Geco) tacos." Nauseated by the food for the first time—considering a "private hunger strike" (eating a lot less).
Strategy: Back in the library organizing papers. Drafting the OW/FU/IL/FS pitch for Steve, framing the legal defenses like a roadmap.
Four Years Later: The Retrospective
The "lights-on" battle was a perfect microcosm of the prison power dynamic. It wasn't about the CO being "in charge"—it was about the clash between the rigid, authoritarian culture of the "Big Prison" and the "Club Fed" mentality where things were traditionally looser. I saw a new CO attempt to enforce total control, only to have the inmates circumvent it the moment he turned his back. It was a daily reminder that in the camps, nobody is truly in charge except the person standing right in front of you at that exact moment.
But while the camp was fighting over light switches, I was fighting for my life in the appellate court. I was trying to salvage the "Orphan Works" and "Fair Use" arguments that my trial lawyer, Steve, had let slip through the cracks.
Looking back, that was the most dangerous part of the process: being my own defense team while my lawyer was effectively silent. I realized then that if those core arguments—the "Fair Use" of those works—didn't make it into the direct appeal, the entire fight at trial had been for nothing. I was literally mapping out the defenses myself, treating the appeal like a "roadmap or flow chart of defenses" because the counsel of record wasn't providing one.
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