A federal judge in Indianapolis has denied the request of an Indiana prison inmate to keep his crimes secret from other inmates.
Judge James Hanlon denied Michael W. Morgan’s urgent appeal to either seal the records of the federal court or grant Morgan permission to use a pseudonym.
Morgan filed a federal lawsuit, requesting the Indiana Department of Correction to remove his crimes from the offender list on the agency’s website.
According to Morgan, he was physically attacked by other inmates after they found information about him in the publicly available database.
According to online court records, prosecutors have dismissed 26 other counts against him in the case.
Judge Hanlon highlighted that inmates have various ways of finding out the specific crime that led to Mr. Morgan’s imprisonment. The judge emphasized that removing Mr. Morgan’s name from this case and sealing its records would only close off one avenue of information. Additionally, Judge Hanlon pointed out that Mr. Morgan had no legal right to prevent the IDO from publishing his crime of conviction, which means that the searchable inmate database, which Mr. Morgan claims is the primary source of this information, will continue to remain accessible.
According to the IDOC website, Morgan’s earliest possible release date is stated as February 7, 2047.
