News (USA)

Appeals court delays transgender inmate’s surgery after panel recommends parole

Appeals court delays transgender inmate’s surgery after panel recommends parole
Michelle-Lael Norsworthy
Michelle-Lael Norsworthy

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal appeals court delayed sex reassignment surgery for a transgender prison inmate in California on Thursday, hours after a state panel recommended that she be paroled.

The separate decisions make it less likely that convicted killer Michelle-Lael Norsworthy will receive the prison-funded surgery before she is released.

Norsworthy, 51, has lived as a woman since the 1990s and was scheduled for the procedure on July 1 after a lower court judge ordered the state to provide it as soon as possible.

The state, however, contested the ruling and the appellate court delayed the surgery while it considers the case – a process that could take months.

Meanwhile, the state Board of Parole Hearings has 120 days to review the commissioners’ recommendation that she be freed. If it is upheld, Gov. Jerry Brown will have another 30 days to intervene.

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The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said nothing about the parole decision in its brief ruling and instead noted that the case raises serious legal questions about whether the state’s resistance to the surgery violates Norsworthy’s constitutional rights.

Lawyers for Norsworthy have argued that denying the operation would amount to cruel and unusual punishment. The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation countered that it has met all of its requirements by providing counseling and hormone therapy.

“Also weighing in favor of a stay here is the likelihood that, absent a stay, this litigation would become moot before receiving full appellate consideration,” the appeals panel said as it set a hearing on Norsworthy’s case in August.

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The stay came the same day that two parole commissioners decided Norsworthy is no longer dangerous and should be freed after serving 28 years in prison for a second-degree murder conviction.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Ray Armstrong opposed her release, arguing that she has not taken responsibility for the murder of 26-year-old Franklin Gordon Liefer Jr. after an argument in a Fullerton bar in November 1985.

Norsworthy, then 21, shot Liefer three times and he died six weeks later. Armstrong said Norsworthy initially claimed the weapon fired accidentally and later contended that she had not intended to kill Liefer.

Armstrong also cited 16 prison rule violations by Norsworthy for fights, threats and possession of contraband, though she has had a clean record since 2009.

“We think that it’s telling if the person can’t sort of behave in prison, they’re not going to behave if they’re released,” he said by telephone after the nearly three-hour hearing.

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The parole hearing was delayed four times in six months, prompting prison officials to accuse Norworthy of stalling until she received the operation.

Lawyers for Norsworthy denied the allegation and said she would be eligible for Medi-Cal, which covers medically necessary sex reassignment surgeries, if paroled.

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