Reno Intervenes to Let Convict Visit His Dying Son

A dying 18-year-old’s wish to see his imprisoned father one last time was granted Saturday after U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno overruled a warden’s denial of the request.

In the middle of the night, guards secretly whisked 47-year-old Salvador Guzman from a Wisconsin prison to a Chicago hospital to see his son, David Stenner, who has leukemia.

“The Bureau of Prisons did temper justice with mercy in this case,” said attorney Sheldon T. Zenner, who worked with the Starlight Foundation, a charity that tries to realize the wishes of sick children.

Details of the 25-minute meeting were kept private.

Reno and other federal prison officials overrode the decision of John Hurley, warden of the federal prison in Oxford, Wis., Zenner said. Hurley had denied the visit on several occasions last week.

Bureau of Prisons officials would confirm only that the meeting took place and said Hurley would not answer questions.

Guzman is serving a 15-year sentence after being convicted in Portland, Ore., of conspiracy to distribute heroin. He is due to be released in 2006.

Stenner, confined in a sterile hospital environment, was unable to visit his father. He had an unsuccessful bone marrow transplant a month ago.

Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar and other politicians tried to intervene Thursday, but the warden denied their requests. Daniel Dunne, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, said at the time, “I could assure you we would grant the request if public safety were not an issue.”

Zenner said Reno first called him on Thursday but did not make any promises.

The next day, Bureau of Prisons Director Kathleen Hawk contacted him and said she and Reno “would take a really hard look at whether there was some way to make David Stenner’s wish come true without jeopardizing anyone’s security,” Zenner said.

“We were very grateful to learn, early this morning, they found a way to do it,” he said.