DOVER, Del. (AP) - A Delaware inmate whose appeal was rejected because it was submitted too late will get a second chance after prosecutors acknowledged that prison officials gave him the wrong mailing address, the state Supreme Court has ruled.
Ron C. Phillips, 47, is serving a 13-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2015 to gang participation, assault and gun charges.
After a judge denied his motion for post-conviction relief in January, Phillips filed an appeal notice on Feb. 13, more than a week before the deadline.
The letter was never delivered. Instead, it was marked “return to sender” and sent back to the maximum-security James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna, which confirmed receipt on April 12.
Phillips filed another appeal notice April 23, but it was rejected as untimely.
Phillips then asked the Supreme Court not to dismiss the appeal, claiming that he relied on inaccurate information provided by the prison law library when he addressed the envelope for the appeal papers. Phillips provided the court a photocopy of the envelope bearing a Feb. 13 postmark and a prison mailroom date stamp reflecting that it was received on April 12.
The court directed the state to provide a copy of the address list that the prison library provides to inmates. The addresses for the Supreme Court locations in Kent County, where the clerk’s office is located, and in New Castle County, where Phillips filed his notice of appeal, were inaccurate and out of date.
“The record supports Phillips’ assertion that the prison law library provided him with an outdated and inaccurate list of addresses for the Delaware courts and related legal services,” Elizabeth McFarlan, chief of appeals for the state Department of Justice, acknowledged in a June 25 court filing. “Phillips relied upon this document to his detriment.”
In an order late last week, the Supreme Court remanded the case to give Phillips an opportunity to file a timely notice of appeal.
Despite the court record, Department of Correction officials maintain that they have no record of Phillips submitting a request to receive any court addresses or any record of incorrect addresses being given by DOC staff.
DOC spokeswoman Jamie Young said in an email Friday that because Phillips is being held in the prison’s secure housing unit, he was required to submit a request slip to receive the address.
“There was an address change for the court back in October that was immediately implemented but we have never received any complaints on a wrong address being given since the update,” Young explained in an earlier email.
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