Update on Bob Strippy

Posted in Central Oklahoma Mensa on January 6, 2005

Nancy Park just sent us an update on Bob Strippy, a Mensan and friend of many COM members. The Appeals Court recently denied to hear Bob’s legal appeal, but the lawyer is now taking the case to the Virginia Supreme Court — click ‘Read More’ below for the full update. If you’re not familiar with Bob’s story, see Nancy’s editorial from the November 2003 Mensokie [login required], or visit Save Bob Strippy [Update 12/1/05: Broken link removed].

Update from Didi Pancake:

“Bob and I have just received word from Bob’s lawyer that the Appeals Court denied to hear his appeal. Evidently, when one requests an expedited review, the case is reviewed by only one of the three judges…this one denied it. (I have a copy of the decision and am not particularly impressed with the judge’s reasoning, but hey, I don’t wear the robes.)

“The other side of this coin is that the lawyer has skipped the idea of requesting an addition review by all 3 judges at the Appeals Court level and has taken the whole thing direct to the Virginia Supreme Court. This at least saves about 3 or 4 months of time at the Appeals Court level.

“Bob is, of course, quite discouraged by this development. He was hoping that the Appeal Court would grant him a new trial which would be conducted properly and allow the evidence that was not able to be presented the first time.

“He is also having trouble with his medications again. A week or so ago, the dr. allowed him to take responsibility for his own meds, but now, as he runs out of individual types of pills, he is having trouble getting more. Also, when he went to see the dr. a few days ago, it turns out that none of the records from UVa or MCV and all the tests and diagnoses done at those places were sent along to Greensville, and this dr. is now talking about starting over to diagnose his various problems. Sheesh. I wish there was something we could do from outside here to help with this, but I am seriously afraid that if any of us start writing to various prison officials about this situation, we will only worsen Bob’s situation.

“He hopes to be able to visit the library on Friday this week or maybe Tuesday next week, and will ask about donating books, journals, etc. I told him about the enthusiastic response from many of you to this possibility, and it perked him up a little.”