[OT] Note to new-ish subscribers: you joined a mailing list, not a "group". (fwd)

[J.A. Terranson]

On Mon, 20 Jan 2014, grarpamp wrote:

> Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 22:34:12 -0500
> From: grarpamp <grarpamp at gmail.com>
> To: cpunks <cypherpunks at cpunks.org>
> Subject: Re: [OT] Note to new-ish subscribers: you joined a mailing list,
>     not a "group". (fwd)
> 
> On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 9:17 PM, J.A. Terranson <measl at mfn.org> wrote:
> >> > FYI now they make laws that are retroactive to indict - i know of a
> >> Do you have a citation for those cases? I?m not doubting you, but the
> > Telecom/NSA/*retroactive immunity* ring a bell?
> 
> That is effectively retroactive acquittal, not indictment.

The constitution speaks of ex-post facto LAW, not aquittal law nor 
indictment law.  That aside, I was personally found guilty of breaking a 
law that was not on the books at the time I was supposed to have committed 
the "crime", although it *was* on the books by the time I went to trial.  
Yes, I could have beat it on appeal, but it would have been so costly as 
to make it unworthy of the effort since I was "sententenced" to an "SIS" - 
something that may just be a local thing (since I've not heard the term 
anywhere else), or maybe it was just coming into use at the time (~1985).  
"SIS" ("Suspended Imposition of Sentence") - pay the fine, and don't get 
rearrested in the following six months, and the arrest, charge, and 
"conviction" gets vacated and "expunged"[1].


//Alif

[1] "Expunged" it turns out is not used in the standard English way we all 
assume it is: the incident shows up as a "sealed criminal record", which 
can be (and has on more than one occasion since then) opened during any 
subsequent criminal proceeding and used against you for "showing a pattern 
of criminal behaviour" as well as for sentencing "points". "Expunged" my 
ass!  Had this been explained to me by my so-called lawyer, I would have 
gone ahead with the [outrageously expensive] appeal of my $1,500 fine.

-- 
Those who make peaceful change impossible,
make violent revolution inevitable.

An American Spring is coming:
   one way or another.