CDR: Re: Declan on Bell

[Tim May]

At 11:54 AM -0800 11/11/00, Eric Cordian wrote:
>Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com> writes:
>
>>  Bell was not coerced into taking the plea agreement; if
>>  anything, he seems to have more mental resources to fight
>>  the system than other defendants I have interviewed.
>
>Unless the plea agreement specifies a sentence equal to the upper range
>that would likely be applied after a conviction was won, it is not
>difficult to infer that the plea agreement is being signed in order to
>lock-in a shorter sentence, with the accuracy of the government's account
>of the alleged misdeeds being a lesser consideration.
>
>Most plea bargaining, by its very nature, is coercion plain and simple.
>
>Just as the common practice of cutting deals in return for testimony the
>prosecution wants, or deferring sentencing until such testimony has been
>provided, results in coerced testimony.

And, as all of us have commented on many times, there are so many 
things which are crimes, so many piled-on charges, that Bell could 
have been facing 20 years in prison for his minor, minor 
transgressions.

Hilary takes bribes and runs a $1000 investment up to $100,000 with 
inside knowledge. Hilary also hides evidence in a criminal 
investigation, somewhere in the _private quarters_ of the White 
House. It mysteriously shows up, part of it, three years later, on a 
table in the private quarters. And so on. No charges filed. The fix 
was in.

Meanwhile, Jim Bell keeps getting raided, busted, and charged with 
various bullshit minor transgressions.

(As for advocating murder, Hilary was overheard on election night at 
a party, railing against Ralph Nader for doing what he did. Fine. But 
she was also overheard saying that "we ought to just have him 
killed."--I heard this on one of the many talk shows I was listening 
to, possibly it was Tim Russert or J.D. Haworth on "Imus." Not sure.)

As a felon, I appreciate that a raid on my house could probably net 
enough b.s. evidence to give a rigged court the excuse to sentence me 
to 20 years and fine me a few million bucks. So many things are now 
illegal that a prosecutor can "indict a ham sandwich," as the saying 
goes. And then use the threat of 20 years in prison to coerce nearly 
any kind of plea bargain, surveillance-state parole, etc.

(The whole parole system is another can of worms. Can't have guns, 
can't use a computer, can't associate with thought criminals, can't 
read controversial material, probation officer can enter home at any 
time, various other police state measures. All done because the 
courts have stacked the deck.)

The American legal system is notoriously corrupt. Sure, most of the 
things which are "illegal" are never actually prosecuted: they are 
there as bargaining chips to get plea agreements so that prosecutors 
can get convictions on their scorecards and campaign posters.

Police states _like_ it when there are tens of thousands of laws on the books.

Little wonder the government seeks to disarm us.


--Tim May
-- 
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon"             | black markets, collapse of governments.