Cole’s attorney Tomas Allen wants to drop the death penalty while the Torrance man is still in custody on charges of trying to kill President Trump.
In a ruling filed Saturday in US District Court for the District of Columbia, public defender AJ Kramer argued that Allen is being punished illegally by continuing to be held in full custody without multiple tests that have found no signs of a suicidal risk.
“Mr. Allen is forced to be escorted into the shower, strip-searched when entering and leaving his cell, and wear a vest with patches on the inside,” Kramer wrote. “These conditions are excessive restrictions on his liberty that serve no practical purpose and deprive Mr. Allen of his dignity while incarcerated.”
A hearing on the motion is scheduled for noon Monday before US District Court Judge Zia M. Faruqui. The court document states that a representative of the Department of Corrections will appear at the hearing.
Neither Kramer nor the Justice Department responded to emailed questions Sunday.
In his argument, Kramer cited case law that finds that “if a restriction or condition is not reasonably related to a legal goal — if it is unlawful or purposeless,” a court may say the punishment “may not be constitutionally imposed” on an inmate.
Allen was remanded to the District of Columbia Jail prior to trial after pleading guilty to continued arrest during an April 28 hearing.
According to the motion, Allen was assigned to a “secure cell,” defined as a room filled with light, and was required to wear a vest “like a straitjacket,” so he could not leave the cell except for legal or medical visits and was stripped upon entering and exiting.
During a meal on April 27, Allen was initially advised that he would be in secure custody even though a member of the dining team “did not see any suicidal ideation,” the motion said.
He was re-examined the next day and, despite the second test finding no suicidal risk factors, he was upgraded to a suicide “watch”, with the requirement of dimmed lights and no access to prison phones or tablets to communicate with anyone outside the prison, according to the motion.
Kramer wrote that he visited Allen on April 28 and was assured that he would be placed in general custody on Thursday or Friday. The next day, a third test found no signs of a suicidal risk, but Allen was returned to suicidal steps.
“Although compared to a stricter watch than a suicide watch, Mr. Allen has not been allowed to call — or be visited by — anyone outside of his legal team, have access to a jail tablet, or, other than official visits or showers — which must be escorted — spend time outside of his cell,” Kramer wrote.
As of Saturday, Kramer said, he still believed Allen was suicidal.
Allen is facing a life sentence on a terrorism-related charge of trying to kill Trump. He was also charged with two firearms violations for allegedly transporting two firearms across state lines while traveling to Washington on an Amtrak train and allegedly discharging one of those firearms, a handgun, during the incident.
Authorities arrested Allen after running past Secret Service agents at a checkpoint on the floor above the ballroom where Trump and other administration officials were attending the annual White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner on April 25. According to prosecutors, he was armed with a gun, a rifle and various knives. Then he fell to the ground and was defeated.
Trump administration officials who were at the dinner, including Acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche and Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for DC, quickly impeached him – relying heavily on an email Allen sent to the family when he breached security at the event, which Trump and others called a “manifesto” but was titled “Apology and Explanation.”
