Killer claimed illegal custody

Talk about it

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Daniel L. Hovland issued an order Nov. 11 denying a motion filed by Sebastian J. Feist, which claimed he is being illegally held in federal custody, according to U.S. Attorney Drew H. Wrigley.

Feist, 50, is serving a life sentence for the 1976 bank robbery and murder of Wade and Ellen Zick of Zeeland, N.D. Feist also pleaded guilty to escaping from a federal prison in 1977 and was sentenced to a one-year term of imprisonment to run consecutive to his life sentence. In November 2006, the United States Parole Commission denied parole for Feist and ordered that he serve to the expiration of his sentence.

In his motion, Feist claimed that he is being held illegally because the Parole Commission allegedly ceased to exist on Nov. 1, 2002, prior to which he should have received a parole release date. Although the Parole Commission was to be abolished on Nov. 1, 2002, on Nov. 2, 2002, Congress passed a law extending the commission.

In essence, there was a one-day period when the commission was apparently “in suspension.”

In the order issued by Hovland, the court found that it lacked jurisdiction over Feist’s claim concerning his release date, and said the claim should be brought in the District of Colorado, where Feist is currently incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colo.

The court held that, if it had jurisdiction, it would reject Feist’s claim. The court also noted that even if the commission had expired on Nov. 1, 2002, it would only have had to set a release date, and that any failure to set such a release date did not automatically entitle Feist to release. The court explained that Feist does not have any expectation that he would be released short of the expiration of his sentence, a determination the commission made in November 2006.

Tags: north dakota, news, jamestown, sebastianfeist, sebastian, feist, zick, murder, daily updates