Prisons – name change

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Wisconsin Court of Appeals

Civil

Prisons – name change

APPEAL from an order of the circuit court for Dane County:  MARYANN SUMI, Judge.  Affirmed.

This appeal arises from a civil rights lawsuit filed against various Department of Corrections personnel by a prison inmate who wishes to send and receive mail labeled solely with the spiritual name he has been using for years, Prince Atum-Ra Uhuru Mutawakkil, without any reference to his given birth name, Norman Green, under which he was originally convicted and committed to the custody of the department.  The appellant’s core contentions are that a prison policy that allows inmates who have had their names changed in court by a statutory mechanism to use only their new legal names on external correspondence, but does not grant the same privilege to those inmates who have taken spiritual names otherwise recognized under common law, misinterprets relevant administrative code provisions and violates rights guaranteed under the United States and Wisconsin Constitutions.  Alternatively, the appellant contends that a prior judicial ruling adding his common law spiritual name to his judgment of conviction should have either preclusive effect on disputed facts in this lawsuit or the same legal effect as a statutory name change.

DISTRICT IV; Dane County; MARYANN SUMI, Blanchard, P.J., Lundsten and Kloppenburg, JJ.

Attorneys: For Appellant: For Respondent:

2012AP002478 Prince Atum-Ra Uhuru Mutawakkil v. Gary Hamblin

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