Updated Post: Is Parole Board Following The Law?

Steven Goodman, a friend and a model prisoner who has been denied parole year after year in spite of his impeccable record, recently filed another lawsuit regarding the legality of how the Virginia Parole Board makes its decisions. In spite of his thoroughly researched effort, the suit was denied a hearing for being "legally insufficient." 

I post the following update with his permission:

Steve Goodman has repeatedly dared to ask the Courts in Virginia whether state law empowers the Parole Board to investigate and consider his crime, sentence, or criminal record when they review him for parole.
The first lawsuit was dismissed by the Court without applying, citing, or discussing any decisional case law, and the Supreme Court of Virginia said that was not an error.
Now, Assistant Attorney General Bryan refuses to sign the Response she filed to my current lawsuit, which the Court is now required to strike from the record," says Goodman, "You can't make this stuff up!"
Virginia law prescribes the specific factors the PB is directed and empowered to investigate as follows:
"the prisoner's history, physical and mental condition and character and his conduct, employment and attitude while in prison" Va. Code Sec. 53.1-155(A), clause 1.
"The General Assembly could have included the crime, sentence, and criminal record among these factors, but they chose not to do so," Goodman says. "Parole Board rules, however, lists the crime, sentence, and criminal record among the factors they investigate.
This conflict between administrative rules and the governing statute is a boilerplate administrative law claim that state and federal courts decide everyday. Obviously, these rules are either legal or illegal; and if they are legal, then there must be statutory language somewhere that gives the Parole Board the power to investigate these crime-related factors.
It doesn't take a lawyer to figure out that in Virginia, it is illegal for the Parole Board to deny parole for any crime-related reason because the crime, sentence, and criminal record are beyond the scope of the parole review process prescribed by state law in sec. 53.1-155(A). If this were not so, Judge Sharrett would have decided my case according to law, and AAG Bryan would have actually signed the response she filed.
I'm a certified paralegal, have worked in the prison law library, and have been a jailhouse lawyer for over 30 years. I attached a memorandum of law with my lawsuits in which I presented the courts with a legal argument, supported by controlling authorities from the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals of Virginia, respectively.
Respectfully, I challenge any attorney, professor, or judge, including Attorney General Miyares, to justify the actions of the Commonwealth in my prior and current lawsuits against the Parole Board, and to cite the statutory language that empowers the Board to investigate my crime, sentence, and criminal record when they review me for parole.
I should add that prior to filing my current litigation, I sent a letter, demanding that the Parole Board CEASE and DESIST from their illegal use of the crime, sentence, and criminal record to deny parole, to Governor Youngkin, Attorney General Miyares, and Parole Board Chairman Dotson via certified mail, return receipt.
In this demand letter, I cited facts and law, including well settled principles of constitutional law enunciated by the Supreme Court of Virginia and the Fourth Circuit to demonstrate Parole Decision Factors D (Sentence Data), E (Present Offense), and F (Prior Criminal Record) violates the separation of power, due process, and ex post facto clauses in the Constitution of Virginia. I received no response to these letters."
According to Goodman, "The manifest abuse of judicial power by Judge Sharrett, which was furthered and covered up by the Supreme Court of Virginia, exposes the reality that courts frequently put their thumbs on the scale to make cases turn out the way they want. Judges and Justices refer to this abuse as utilitarianism or serving a "greater good."
In fact, I established a web site called BadJurist.com to address this issue. At the center of my web site is the following quote from a speech by Professor Monroe Freedman:
"I'm tired of judicial opinions that bear absolutely no relationship whatsoever to the cases that have been filed and argued before the judges. I am talking about judicial opinions that falsify the facts of cases that have been argued, judicial opinions that omit or make disingenuous use of controlling authorities, judicial opinions that cover these things up with no-publication and no-citation rules." Speech to the Seventh Annual Judicial Conference of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 128 F.R.D. 409, 439 (1989).
While this dirty little secret may not be known by the general public, it is well known by the legal community.
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First Case: Goodman v. Bennett, et al., Case No. CL19-249, Greensville County Circuit Court
Appeal: Goodman v. Bennett, et al., Record No. 200555, Supreme Court of Virginia
Current case still pending: Goodman v. Dotson, et al., Case No. CL23000425-00, Pittsylvania County Circuit Court
You can contact Steve Goodman by email at JPAY.com or by writing him at:
Steve Goodman 1028377
Green Rock Correctional Center
Post Office Box 1000
Chatham, Virginia 24531

If you are going to write about Goodman's charges, make sure you include the lawsuit he filed before the felony charges were filed, Goodman v. Godson, in which he claimed he was the victim of false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and conspiracy, and the hearing he had on a motion to dismiss based upon prosecutorial vindictiveness.