Year in Jail for Web Links

Tim May timcmay at got.net
Tue Aug 5 18:06:10 PDT 2003


On Tuesday, August 5, 2003, at 05:31  PM, Duncan Frissell wrote:

> On Tue, 5 Aug 2003, Eric Cordian wrote:
>
>> An anarchist has been sentenced to a year in jail for having links to
>> explosives information on his Web site.  AmeriKKKa is further fucking  
>> the
>> First Amendment by restricting whom he may associate with in the  
>> future,
>> and what views he may espouse.
>
> You can't protect people from cowardice.  Jim Bell plead the first  
> time.
> Michael Milkin plead.  Bill Gates plead.  Various Arabs plead recently.
> If you plead you can't be acquitted unless you can convince a judge to  
> let
> you withdraw your plea tough.  Courage.
>
> Prosecutors and cops are allowed to lie to you about their intent.   
> Know
> the law.
>
> http://technoptimist.blogspot.com/ 
> 2003_08_03_technoptimist_archive.html#106012921668886203

Sadly, pleading is often the only viable choice. When the cops are  
liars, when the judges are ignoring the Constitution, when the appeals  
courts are too busy to hear appeals for many years (unless the appeal  
is an emergency appeal to halt the recall of Gray Davis, that is), and  
when sentencing guidelines are fully out of whack with economics and  
even with that nebulous concept of "justice," pleading is often the  
best of a bad deal.

This is all possible because the plea bargaining system has gotten out  
of control. The accused face a plea deal of M months and N dollars if  
they plead, or 10M months and 20N dollars if they go to trial and lose,  
which is pretty likely when cops lie, when judges ignore the  
Constitution, and when juries are made up of people who are  
uncontroversial enough so as to have no opinions to disqualify them.

(I was last picked for a jury 30 years ago this summer, back when I  
registered as a Republican. In the 30 years since, when I have been  
registered as a Libertarian, I have never been selected for a jury.  
Meanwhile, some of my know-nothing neighbors tell me about serving  
every few years on juries.)

In a couple of criminal cases I have first-hand knowledge of, the plea  
deals were made so persuasive and the sentencing guidelines so harsh  
(had it gone to trial and the accused found guilty) that to not plea  
would have been irresponsible.

You may not like this, and you may have cheered on the fights by the  
noble fighters who decided not to plea, but the system is stacked in  
favor of pleas. This is our injustice system.

--Tim May, Corralitos, California
Quote of the Month: "It is said that there are no atheists in foxholes;  
perhaps there are no true libertarians in times of terrorist attacks."  
--Cathy Young, "Reason Magazine," both enemies of liberty.





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