Bruce Foy Lowry v. Samuel Lewis

Lowry claims ineffective assistance of counsel because his lawyer did not move to suppress evidence. We reject his claim.

I. Facts

An Arizona state prisoner told the prison warden that a number of his fellow inmates in cell block 6, the administrative segregation unit, planned a violent riot. The plan was to stab an inmate in order to lure a number of guards into the unit. The guards would then be deluged with bombs made from blasting caps, shrapnel, and about a pound of explosives. The informant claimed the inmates kept contraband “keestered” in their ree-tums. He had decided to “snitch” and request a transfer when he learned “through the vent” that he was to be the inmate stabbed. He corroborated his story by expelling from his own rectum a balloon filled with gun powder.

The prison authorities arranged for searches of prisoners’ rectums in the cell block. Fifteen inmates were taken from their cells. A medical assistant (wearing a new lubricated glove for each inmate) stuck his finger in each inmate’s rectum. Then each inmate was moved to the medical facility in the unit and probed again, this time by a doctor. The doctor felt something in Low-ry’s rectum, had him x-rayed,…