Kenneth Eugene Barrett was convicted by a federal jury in November for the death of OHP Trooper David "Rocky" Eales. Eales and another trooper were shot while attempting to serve a drug search warrant at Barrett's rural home northwest of Sallisaw. Barrett was formally sentenced to death in December for intentionally killing a state law enforcement officer engaged in the performance of his duty.
Barrett was also sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release for two other federal charges. Barrett's federal trial was his third. His first state trial in Sequoyah County ended with a deadlocked jury, while his second trial resulted in a manslaughter conviction. Barrett was serving a combined 30-year prison sentence for Eales' death when he was indicted in federal court.
Barrett, who is now a federal prisoner in Terre Haute, Ind., spent over a year in the Muskogee City/County Jail while awaiting his federal trial. What allegedly happened to Barrett during his time in the Muskogee jail is the core of Barrett's civil rights complaint, which was filed July 28 in U.S. District Court in Muskogee.
According to Barrett's civil rights complaint, he alleges that jail personnel and the Muskogee County Sheriff violated and deprived him of his rights when he was refused access to the courts and legal documents and material. Barrett is asking for punitive and compensatory damages.
Throughout the 14-page complaint, Barrett alleges that he was repeatedly denied access to the law library and legal documents while in the Muskogee Jail. He alleges that the defendants deprived him of legal resources that Barrett needed to challenge the legality of pending drug charges. Those pending drug charges, Barrett alleges, were "weighing aggravators" when the federal jury decided Barrett's sentence. He alleges that if he had not been denied access to legal materials to challenge the legality of the pending drug charges, he may have received life in prison instead of a death sentence.
Barrett alleges in the complaint that the defendants were aware of the filing deadline and "obstinately" denied him necessary legal materials to pursue and file the action. He said that he was first told by jail officials that he was denied legal materials because he was a federal prisoner and later told that in order to receive the needed material he allegedly had to provide the precise citation or title for the material.
Barrett includes in his complaint alleged request letters that he submitted to jail personnel, along with their written responses denying him access to the law library, copies of documents, and material.
Barrett previously filed a civil rights complaint, but that complaint was dismissed in district court in Muskogee and later in the Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver for failing to demonstrate that he was denied access to the law library while in jail.
