Why Rubashkin?

"A federal judge in Iowa on Monday announced a prison sentence of 27 years on financial fraud charges for Sholom Rubashkin, the former manager of a kosher meatpacking plant where hundreds of illegal immigrant workers were arrested in a 2008 raid that garned national attention. Although the case against Mr. Rubashkin originally centered on immigration charges, during the trial in Cedar rapids prosecutors focused instead on financial abuses when he was in charge of the Agriprocessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa. The sentence, two years more than prosecutors had requested, was unusually high in the recent history of financial crimes--longer than the term for Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former chief executive of Enron, and L. Dennis Kozlowski, the former chief executive of Tyco. ... The sentence is also likely to deepen the belief among some Orthodox Jewish leaders, who have sustained an international campaign on Mr. Rubashkin's behalf, that he was unfairly tried. ... The federal prosecutors had originally sought a life sentence for Mr. Rubashkin, but then revised their request to 25 years. Six former attorneys general, including Janet K. Reno and Edwin Meese III, wrote to Judge Reade in April arguing that a life sentence would be a severe misreading of the sentencing guidelines as applied to white-collar crimes", Julia Preston at the NYT, 22 June 2010, link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/us/22iowa.html.

Amazing, I agree with Janet Reno. Applying the sentencing guideline 2B1.1 to Rubashkin's crimes, I add four points as a manager of five or more, and 22 points for $26 million damage, total = 33 points, a 135-168 month sentence from the table. What's going on here? Is the Obama administration's (ad hominem attack notice) displaying its anti-semitism for all to see? A life sentence? Why?

KC's Scholastic Catastrophe

"Westport High is a magnificent old building, all brick and fine masonry, set high on a hill in the heart of town. It's more than 100 years old, just a few blocks from where Ernest Hemmingway lived before he went off to drive ambulances in the Great War. So one might expect an angry roar against its inclusion in a plan to close nearly half of Kansas City's 57 public schools this summer. Instead the vibe is more, What took you so long? ... School districts all over the country are wrestling with problems in urban centers, but Kansas City's plan has caught national attention because of its scope. ... The situation n New Orleans was 'created by a natural disaster. [KC] is due to a human-made disaster,' says Jack Jennnings, president of the Center on Education Policy, a public-school advocacy group. ... Money hasn't been the problem. In 1985, a federal judge ordered the state to pony up $2 billion to address decades of unconstitutional treatment of black children. ... Meanwhile kids weren't proficient in the basics--and still aren't. At a majority of the schools, fewer than one-quarter of the students were proficient in math and English last year. On any given day, the buildings are half empty. [KC] had some 75,000 public-school students in the 1960s. Today it has about 17,000", my emphasis, Karen Ball at Time, 14 June 2010: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1993877,00.html.

Wow. KC's public schools have 17,000 students and 3,000 employees, one for every six students. What do they all do? Look at the money KC spent at the behest of an ignoramus federal judge. The time will come when localities ignore federal judges' orders and dare the judges to imprison everyone in the locality. The waiting lists for jail grow daily. What was supposedly unconstitutional about KC's treatment of black school children anyway?

Christie as FDR

"Once again showing that he means to shake up Trenton, Gov. Christopher J. Christie declined on Monday to reappoint a sitting justice to the New Jersey Supreme Court, instead appointing someone who he said would show the restraint that was missing from the court. ... Justice [John] Wallace's departure also means that for the first time in 16 years, the court will not have a black justice. If confirmed by the State Senate, Mr. Christie's appointment of Anne M. Patterson, a Morris County lawayer, will give the court its first female majority. Speaking to reporters in Trenton, Mr. Christie had only kind words for Justice Wallace, but he described the historically liberal court as 'out of control' over the last three decades, usurping the roles of the governor and the Legislature is setting social and tax policies", Richard Perez-Pena at the NYT, 4 May 2010, link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/nyregion/04christie.html.

Go Christie. If FDR could threaten to "pack" pack the Supreme Court, I see no reason you can't unpack New Jersey's Supreme Coirt.

No Pornography Viewers Stoneridge

"When Amy was a little girl, her uncle made her famous in the worst way: as a star in the netherworld of child pornography. ... Now, with the help of an inventive lawyer, the young woman known as Amy--her real name has been withheld in court to prevent harassmant--is fighting back. She is demanding that everyone convicted of possessing even a single Misty image pay her damages until her total claim of $3.4 million has been met. Some experts argue that forcing payment from people who do not produce such images but only possess them goes too far. ... For years, lawmakers (and some voters) have reasoned that virtually no punishment was too severe for such criminals; even statutory limits on sentencing were often exceeded. Now some courts have begun to push back, saying these heavy sentences are improper, and a new emphasis has arisen on making sex offenders pay monetary damages for their crimes. ... On Thursday, the California Supreme Court ruled 5 to 2 that a state ballot initiative allowing the indefinite extension of sentences for sexually violent predators might violate consitutional guarantees of equal protection; the court ordered a new hearing to explore the issues. On Monday, the court also asked for more study on a law that prohibits sexual predators from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park after their release from prison. The law, called Jessica's law, was approved by voters in 2006", John Schwartz at the NYT, 3 February 2010, link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/us/03offender.html.

This ruling was absurd. Pornography viewers should not be liable to Amy under any vicarious liability concept I understand. Why? Because the "conspiracy" to film Amy ended years ago. This is like saying a stolen merchandise "fence" should be held under the felony-murder rule if one conspirator in a robbery conspiracy killed a bank guard during the robbery. Huh? See how the Supremes treated a similar concept in Stoneridge, my 26 January 2008 post:

http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/01/supreme-injustice.html. I guess pornography viewers need to hire Hogan & Hartson to get this type of liability thrown out.

Sentencing Stupidity

"Judges are looking skeptically at prosecutors' requests to give 15- to 25-year sentences for viewing sexual images of minors, handing down more sentences of five to 10 years, or in some cases probation. The movement has been gaining steam over the past two years even as the Justice Department has made child pornography and other child-exploitation prosecutions a top priority, leading to more than 2,300 cases last year, the highest figure since the department began tracking the statistic. ... The shift has upset advocates of abused children who say the sentences won't deter future misconduct. ... Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Misisng & Exploited Children ... says the dissemination of such images encourages behavior that hurts children, not least the production of those images. Some child-porn viewers still get sentences of 15 or 20 years from judges who follow the guidelines. That's greater than punishments meted out to some child molesters and other violent criminals", my emphasis, Amir Efrati at the WSJ, 20 January 2010, link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704363504575003271494106644.html.

Absurd! 15+-year sentences for viewing child pornography? Hasn't the DOJ anything important to do? AUSAs love these cases. Why? They almost invariably result from sting operations, true no-brainers. I would repeal the laws against child pornography. Viewing an existing film is not making it, disagreeing with the DOJ. Making the film would almost invariably be criminal. California penal code (PC) section 266j provides 15-years to life for sexual battery on a child. California PC section 311.11 gives up to one year for child porn possession. Federal law is absurb! Allen, get lost. Grow up. No judge should sentence anyone to prison for viewing child porn. The more time the DOJ spends on these cases, the less time it has to prosecute the Vampire Squid. Even if reading about murders "encourages" committing them, doesn't the First Amendment say read?

Who do I blame for this? Those who brought us: prohibition and the drug laws, i.e., groups like the Women's Christian Temperance Union. After all, the Master said, ""You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment", Matt 5:21-22 (NIV). He also said, "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery,' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart'." Matt 5:27-28 (NIV). Here's the Christian-Jewish rub. Judaism focuses on acts; Christianity on thoughts. Jesus may have meant: since the thought preceeds the act, guard your thoughts. If so, much Christian doctrine collapses.

Courts On Trial

"It is taken for granted that, for the sake of peace, justice and order, the courts must have a monopoly on judicial power within the boundaries of their jurisdiction. Yet, the ability of today's courts to achieve any any of those values with the monopoly power they possess is subject to serious doubt. Even if justice implies a court system with monopoly power to do justice, the converse is not true. The mere existence of monopoly judicial power does not imply that it will be used justly. ... However, what people want is not merely some reasonable assurance that disputes will be resolved, but that they will be resolved with at least a rough approximation to justice: the correct application of the right principles to the reasonably known facts. ... Why should we think the state, even a democratic state, will resolve disputes justly? ... Like any monopolist, the state will tend to charge more for its services than private arbitrators would. Moreover, since its revenue is guaranteed, and the courts have little incentive to attract or please its 'customers,' government courts have little incentive to incur the costs of producing justice: the intellectual, moral and physical effort required to achieve true justice. ... There is the story of the local judge who, confronted with having to wade through hundreds of pages of summary judgment motion papers, instead lazily told the lawyers, 'There must be an issue of fact in there somewhere. Motion denied.' ... Thus, government courts will tend to expand the rights and powers of the government, while shrinking the rights and powers of the citizenry. ... The [US] government has been growing steadily ever since 1776, with the reliable, continual and unsurprising endorsement of its own courts. ... Thus, government courts, unconcerned about securing or satisfying customers, tend to be more concerned about looking after their own interests and the interests of their allies. They adopt, for example, elaborate and fairly inflexible rules of procedure, most of which seem designed to serve the needs of the court, not the litigants. ... A further point: it is rarely remarked that government courts are subject to the same special interest group dynamic that plagues the other two branches of government. Most citizens want courts that mete out justice. Yet, a small group of people view the courts as a means to increase their wealth, power and prestige. Which group will tend to prevail over the other? ... The notion that appointed judges are apolitical is a fantasy entertained mainly by naive and self-appointed 'court reformers.' ... Lawyers appointed to judgeships usually are more wedded to secretive elite circles. Is that why elites almost unanimously favor appointing judges? ... It is a common belief that federal judges, who are appointed, are less political than state judges who are usually elected. However, every federal district judge in Buffalo stated out as a politically-appointed [US] Attorney or [AUSA]. ... They will tend to favor the interests of the power elite because of a similar outlook, loyalty, gratitude, or a desire for future appointments and other favors from the power brokers for themselves and their families and associates. .. While such judges may fairly adjudicate disputes between ordinary private persons, when such persons litigate against the state, or members of the power elite, they will tensd to discreetly favor the elite. They are usually clever enough to disguise the favoritism. ... We are told that no one should be the judge of his own cause, yet the state, in disputes with its own citizens or subjects, is always the judge of its own cause. ... In sum, the monopoly state provides no assurance that disputes will be resolved justly, merely that they will be resolved", James Ostrowski at Lew Rockwell, 29 December 2009, link:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/ostrowski/ostrowski95.1.html.

Jerome Frank, a Second Circuit Court of Appeals judge wrote Courts on Trial, 1949, about this issue, among others. It's a good read. Sandra Day O'Connor is a big proponent of appointing judges. I'm not.

Jakarta On the Hudson

"They have long worked illegally in the shadows of Indonesia's police stations, attorney general's office and courts, the common link in what is called Indonesia's 'judicial mafia.' Called 'markuses,' they are middlemen who can persuade corrupt police officers, prosecutors and judges to drop a case against a client for the right amount of money. ... President Susilo Bambang Tudhoyno said he would make eradicating the judicial mafia of markuses and corrupt officals a priority of his second term. ... But lawyers, officials and watchdog groups warn that uprooting the so-called judicial mafia wll require an overhaul of the country's law enforcement and justice systems. They say that Mr. Yudhoyno, who shies away from confrontation, is unlikely to push through changes inside the nation's powerful police force, attorney general's office and courts, institutions that are considered among Indonesia's most corrupt. ... Kuntoro Mangkusubroto [KM], the leader of a new presidential task force to reform the justice system, said Indonesia's criminal justice system was fertile ground for middlemen representing moneyed clients. 'We want to have a system that is fair for everybody, not dependent on whether he or she has power or money,' [KM] said in an interview, adding that cleaning up the current system would take years. ... Last month, wiretapped conversations revealed a plot by a prominent businessman, along with police officials and prosecutors, to fabricate a case against officals at the Corruption Eradication Commission, the nation's chief anticorruption agency. ... What shocked most Indonesians was not the brazenness of the speakers but the fact that the practices mentioned in the wiretaps seemed routine. By contrast, Indonesians without money have seemed increasingly at the mercy of a legal system that metes out severe punishment for seemingly harmless offenses. ... In dealing with the police, the markuses--who are typically relatives of police officials, lawyers, journalists or anyone with contacts in law enforcement agencies--bribe police officials on behalf of a client in trouble with the law. With money, they persuade the police to change evidence or drop a case, according to watchdog groups, police officials and lawyers. ... So far, attempts to reform or monitor the police, prosecutors and judges have been largely cosmetic, experts say. ... Indonesia's Supreme Court, which oversees the conduct of all the nation's courts, has mostly ignored the commission's recommendations, choosing instead to protect colleagues, Mr. [Busyro] Muqoddas said", my emphasis, Norimitsu Onishi at the NYT, 20 December 2009, link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/world/asia/20indo.html.

Welcome to Jakarta on the Hudson. Look at some of the sweetheart deals we've seen: Ashcroft, Deloitte, Debevoise, my 31 December 2008 and 17 May December 2009 posts, links: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2009/05/ashcroft-exposed.html http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/12/justice-department-extortion-racket-4.html. US markuses are "former" SEC and DOJ officials. We do things differently here.

America's Dumbest Judge

"Ten years after launching a hostile takeover of US copper refiner Asarco LLC and four years after forcing it into Chapter 11 bankrupcty, Mexican billionaire German Larrea Mota-Velasco finally has what he wanted: control of the copper giant free from the threat of environmental and asbestos litigation", Joel Millman & David McLaughlin at the WSJ, 16 November 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704538404574537914137572236.html.

This ruling is farcical. See my 16 July 2008 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/07/asarco-followup-4.html. What does Judge Andrew Hanen not understand?

Christie's Potential Andrew Jackson Moment

"But what New Jersey [NJ] needs is a governor willing to confront the state's Supreme Court over who is in charge of school funding. And Mr. Christie has shown no stomach for that fight. ... But in a succession of school-funding cases over the years, the state Supreme Court has taken control of the $11 billion Property Tax Relief Fund. ... The court sends more than half of the state aid to 31 largely urban 'special needs' school districts, the special needs of which were for the most part created by decades of Democratic mismanagment. The remaining 554 largely suburban towns fight over the rest. ... The public schools produce dismal test scores. Yet thanks to the court they are subsidized at almost incomprehensible levels. The city [Asbury Park] gets $29,895 per-pupil annually in education aid from the state. The total per-pupil cost exceeds $35,000 annually--enough to ship the kids off the prep schools where they would get top-notch schooling and room and board. The average per-pupil cost across the state is about $18,000. ... 'Will one of those tough choices be to wrest control of school funding back from the courts?' I asked. Mr. Christie spent the spring ducking questions about the issue, so I figured I might have better luck with Ms. [Kim] Guadagno [Christie's running mate]. ... If you're looking for a reason for the Republican's inability to pull away from the unpopular Corzine in the polls, look no further than this. New Jersey residents are struggling under some of the highest property tax bills in the nation. ... Surburban property taxes are high because the state Supreme Court has turned the property-tax system into a massive scheme to transfer wealth from the suburbs to the cities", my emphasis, Paul Mulshine at the WSJ, 31 October 2009, link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703574604574499722466073690.html.

Gov. Christie, you have an opportunity to follow Andrew Jackson's comment to John Marshall, my 26 January 2008 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/01/supreme-injustice.html.

Tell your Supremes, "I will ignore your rulings with regard to using the property tax as a "progressive income tax". Dare it to arrest you. Remind NJ's Supremes "I control the state police, not you". With some luck you can head the 2012 Republican ticket. Look at the obscure Illinois politician we recently elected POTUS. The idea of courts setting tax policy is absurd. I remember in 1958 New York City's (NYC) public schools averaged about $550 per pupil per year, say $7,400 today. Does NJ's public schools spending over twice per student as much in real terms as NYC's did in 1958, make them better? Stop the euphemisms. Are "special needs" synonymous with majority NAM? Do largely non-NAM school districts produce "better results" for less money? Asbury Park is 16% white and 67% black. Hmm. Has this something to do with its schools' abysmal results?

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Experts

"Just 88 minutes before the February 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham [CTW], Gov. Rick Perry's office received by fax a crucial arson expert's opinion that later ignited a political firestorm over whether Texas, on Perry's watch, used botched forensic evidence to send a man to his death. ...At 6:20 pm [CTW] was executed after declaring: 'I am an innocent man, convicted of a crime I did not commit.' ... Yet Perry's office has taken the position that any documents showing his own review and staff discussion of the [CTW] case are not public--a claim the Chronicle disputes. ... By execution day, Perry was [CTW's] last chance. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals had rejected a reprieve, calling the arson expert's report 'no more than an opinion'," my emphasis, Lise Olsen at the Houston Chronicle, 11 October 2009, link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6662113.html.

To develop contempt for judges, read 5th Circuit criminal decisions regularly. Do these black-robed incompetents deny the DA presented "expert" opinion at trial that arson ocurred? These clowns lack intellectual integrity. Read a case like Boss v. Quarterman, 552 F3d 425 (5th Cir., 2008) find its logic. I dare you. It's, "Them damn niggahs be locked up and we don't wanna hear from 'em".

Through Texas Looking Glass

"One of the most disturbing legal trends in recent memory is the contention of some conservative jurists that a person's actual innocence is not automatically grounds to overturn a conviction. An echo of this pernicious doctrine popped up this week in the case of a former Houston nurse and baby sitter, Cynthia Cash, convicted of the 1998 shaking death of a 4-month-old-baby. ... That autopsy has now been rewritten to label the cause of death undetermined, and notes no evidence of trauma to the victim. ... In response, the Harris County [DA's] office opposed the appeal, citing a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling that a conviction resulting from an error-free proceeding should not be overturned lightly based on new evidence, and that the burden on a defendant claiming innocence 'is exceedingly heavy.' It also noted that other evidence supported a conviction. ... For the layman, it's difficulty to understand why a jury verdict based in part on an erroneous ruling of homicide should not be re-examined", my emphasis, Editorial at the Houston Chronicle, 17 September 2009, link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/6622562.html.

Pat Lycos, you just got a Nifong nomination. I hope you're proud of it. If judges and attorneys want to know why we hold them in contempt, look at this. What nonsense, to say the trial was "error-free" begs the question. It wasn't. The DA had the coroner find a homicide took place. Now the coroner says it didn't. No homicide, no crime. What's so difficult? The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is a joke. Did you know nationwide 97-98% of all criminal appeals are denied? However, about 15% of civil appeals are granted. I suspect corporate defendants percentage is higher. Criminal appeals are frequently denied under the "harmless error" doctrine. Which means? The appeals court sustained the conviction no matter what are the facts or the law. Read some criminal appeals. You may be shocked with what appellate courts will let prosecutors and trial judges get away with.

Wait Listed By Jail-10

"Jeffrey Woods, warden of the Hiawatha Correctional Facilty here at the eastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, was vacationing on Lake Huron when his cellphone rang on July 1. The message was from his boss: Hiawatha, which had been slated to shut down in October as part of a sweeping downsizing of the state's prison system, would have to close by Aug. 7. That meant he had just five weeks to ship out 1,100 inmates and 207 staff. ... The scramble to empty Hiawatha prison is part of a rapid shift in thinking about how many people should be locked up in the US, and for what crimes. ... Now the recession and collapsing budgets are forcing an about face. Prisons are one of the biggest single line items in many state budgets, in part because nearly five times as many people are behind bars as in the 1970s. ... At least 26 states have cut correctional spending in fiscal year 2010, and at least 17 are closing prisons or reducing their inmate populations, according to the Vera Institute on Justice, a criminal-justice reform organization in New York ... Inmates here on average serve 127% of the court-ordered minimum sentences, well beyond the sentences of inmates in other states that offer parole, according to the Council of State Governments Justice Center. ... Earlier this year, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm expanded the parole and clemency board from 10 members to 15 and announced the state's prison population of 48,000 would be cut by 4,000 inmates. ... At the end of 2008, there were 12,000 prisoners in the Michigan prison system who were eligible for parole, but hadn't been released. In recent months, 3,000 of them have been paroled", my emphasis, Gary Fields at the WSJ, 5 September 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125149123499467721.html.

"After decades of pursuing lock-'em-up policies, states are scrambling to reduce their prison populations in the face of tight budgets, making fundamental changes to their criminal justice systems as they try to save money. ... California, with the nation's second-largest prison system, is considering perhaps the most dramatic proposal--releasing 40,000 inmates to save money and comply with a court ruling that found the state's prisons overcrowded. ... Russ Marlan, a spokesman fior the Corrections Department in Michigan ... [said] 'When you're not having budget troubles, that's when we implemented many of these lengthy drug sentences and zero-tolerance policies [that] really didn't work.' ... State Atty. Gen. Jack Conway sued to overturn the thousands of early releases, arguing that a retroactive change to sentences is illegal and risky. The case was heard before the Kentucky Supreme Court in August. ... Still, Conway said that he too was concerned about the prison population, and that he wanted to bring it down by targeting nonviolent offenders for early release and expanding drug courts", my emphasis, Nicholas Riccardi at the LAT, 5 September 2009, link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-prison-release5-2009sep05,0,5705309.story.

"The wheels of justice in Georgia are grinding more slowly each day. Cuts in spending for the state court system have led to fewer court dates available for hearings and trials, creating a growing backlog of cases. With serious criminal matters being heard first, delays are stretching to months for many civil, domestic and minor criminal cases. The state court system, which handles more than 150,000 cases a year, had to slash spending by almost 15% in the past fiscal year, and more cuts loom. The state's budget shortfall widened to $3.7 billion over the past 18 months. ... According to a July survey by the Washington-based National Center for State Courts, at least 28 state court systems have imposed hiring freezes, 23 have frozen salaries and seven have planned or imposed salary reductions. ... In April, a group of attorneys with the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human rights filed suit against the public-defender system, law-enforcement officials and state revenue officials. The suit, filed in the Superior Court of Elbert County on behalf of five plaintiffs and 'all those similarly situated,' alleges that many poor defendants are 'left to languish in jail' and that 'some have been without counsel for over six months' ... Bert Brantley, spokesman for [Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue said], 'every piece of government believes its spending is the most important, but clearly when you're governor you have to look at the state's overall responsibilities'," Paulo Prada and Corey Dade at the WSJ, 8 September 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125236538620490881.html.

Michigan looks like inmate paradise compared to Texas. 12,000 of its 48,000 inmates are parole eligible, 25%. Texas has 91,000 of 156,000 imates parole or mandatory supervision eligible, 58%. Our inmates serve about 250% of their minimum time. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) does not report the actual percentage but I estimated it from a TDCJ 2008 report. Michigan, with 10.0 million people has a .0048 incarceration rate: Texas with 24.3 million has a .0064 rate, 25% higher. We should follow Michigan's lead.

Conway's understanding of the US Constitution's "ex post facto" clause is not mine. Kentucky should consider following Mexico too. Only starving the beast will make it change. Kill the Fed, starve Uncle Sam. Marlin, what do you mean didn't work? They enabled contractors to get paid to build prisons and increased the number of prison guards. They worked fine.

Brantley hits on a big truth, economic calculation is impossible under socialism. Georgia might consider repealing some of its criminal laws. William Anderson has a comment on the impossibility of economic calculation under socialism at William Anderson, 31 August 2009, link: http://williamlanderson.blogspot.com/2009/08/mises-human-action-and-economic.html.

No Ham Sandwich for Lycos

"A grand juror who sat on one of the two panels to indict the wife of Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina on suspicion of setting their home on fire said Saturday he was disappointed that charges against her had once again been dismissed. ... Harris County [DA] Pat Lycos denied politics had anything to do with her decision Friday to dismiss charges against Francisa Medina. Instead, she said it was strictly new evidence that earned her approval. ... Expert evidence recently given to [Steve] Baldassano by the defense team--and agreed upon by at least one official from the Harris County Fire Marshall's Office--indicates it could have been an electrical fire. ... Arson cannot be ruled out either, said Baldassano, who emphazied that the defense's expert witnesses were 'highly regarded' in the field and also serve as experts for the state in other cases", my emphasis, Paige Hewitt at the Houston Chronicle, 30 August 2009, link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6593152.html.

Aren't we impressed? How many "experts" did Lycos have look at the evidence to find one to say the fire could have been electrical. So? It could have been arson, or Martians. Let the jury decide. This stinks. Did Medina give Lycos anything to quash this indictment? Hey Lycos, has the moon anything to do with the tides? I last commented on this stinker 23 February 2008: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/02/harris-county-justice.html. Ham sandwich, see my 1 December 2008 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/12/sol-wachtler-was-right.html.

Japanese Justice

"However, new tests showed that Mr. Sugaya's DNA did not match samples linked to the crime, forcing authorities to accept that he is innocent and throwing into doubt evidence used in scores of other trials. The new tests also made clear the dangers of courts' general faith in jailhouse confessions, even when, like Mr. Sugaya's, they are subsequently recanted. Amnesty International has expressed concern that Japanese police routinely obtain confessions through 'torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment', including beatings and unrelenting questioning, while lawyers complain that the courts' 99 per cent conviction rate reflects undue willingness to accpet prosecutors' accounts. ... Professional judges have run juryless trials in Japan since 1943, but under the new system lay judges drawn from voter roles will help to decide guilt and punishment. ... However, some experts say citizens may be unwilling to go against the views of professional judges, while a gag law that bars lay judges from talking about their experiences afterwards may make it hard to tell how well the system operates", my emphasis, Mure Dickie at the FT, 20 June 2009.

In Texas 98% of all felony convictions result from plea bargains. Most attorneys, in my opinion, can't try cases. Absent eyewitness testimony, they are helpless. It's not the world of Gary Sinese and David Caruso out there, but the world of "summary arrest" or walk". Japan's new system looks like a "false flag" to me.

Houston's Perry Masons

"Lawyer Jerome Godinich, chastised by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals this year for repeatedly failing to meet federal death penalty deadlines, has represented an average of 360 felony clients per year in Harris County--a caseload that surpasses every other similar attorney. ... In all, 10 of 32 Harris County lawyers approved by judges to represent clients facing life or death sentences regularly exceeded the recommended limit of 150 felony clients per year--a standard established in 1973 and adopted by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the Houston Chronicle found. ... Stephen Bright, an expert in capital case representation who has taught at Yale and Harvard law schools and reviewed the Chronicle's findings, said death penalty lawyers have no business handling nearly 400 clients in one year. 'That's way too many cases and would not leave time for any other cases, particularly capital cases.' ... Harris County District Court judges do not monitor caseloads of attorneys they appoint, even for death penalty cases", Lise Olsen at the Houston Chronicle, 26 May 2009.

OJ spent $4.4 million on his criminal attorneys. Assuming an average of $400 per hour, that's 11,000 hours. If an attorney "handles" 150 cases per year and has 1,800 working hours, that's 12 hours per case! An attorney can easily spend 12 hours drafting one pretrial motion! Indigent representation in Harris County, like much of the rest of the US is a joke. A result: 98% of all Texas felony cases are resolved through plea bargains. The majority of prosecutors could no more try a case properly than Marcia Clark and Chris Darden did in the seven-month OJ fiasco.

Mike Nifong Does Miami

"How does a court arrive at a 30 day sentence for someone who was driving drunk and killed a pedestrian? Simple: the drunk-driver arrives at a multi-million dollar settlement with the family of the deceased. ... Last year, [Donte] Stallworth signed a 7 year, $35 million contract with the a $4.75 million signing bonus. Although charged with DUI Manslaughter for the March 14 incident, the 28 year-old wide receiver pled guilty is a plea-bargain agreement last week that included a 'confidential' financial settlement with the Reyes family. The 'bargain' also included 30 days (24 days with good behavior) in jail, 1000 hours of community service, drug and alcohol testing and a lifetime suspension of his driver's license", Bob Weir, 21 June 2009 at: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/money_talks_justice_walks.html.

If anyone wonders if justice is for sale, look at this case. Miami DA Katherine Rundle (KR), I nominate you for 2009's "Nifong". Florida 782.071 indicates Stallworth is guility of Vehicular Manslaughter, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Why a "Nifong" for you KR? Because of Florida 843.14, Compounding a felony, "Whoever, having knowledge of the commission of an offense punishable with death or by imprisonment in the state prison, takes money or a gratuity or reward, on an engagement therefor, upon an agreement or understanding, expressed or implied, to compound or conceal such offense, or not to prosecute therefor, or not to give evidence therof, shall when such offense of which he or she has knowledge is ... guilty of a felony of the third degree". A third degree felony is punishable by up to five years in Florida prison. KR, if I found Florida 843.14 in about two minutes, why were you apparently party to an illegal agreement? What a DA's office! It aids and abets felonies! Why did the judge permit this? What a country, all the "justice" money can buy. I'll guess KR. You are using Stallworth to get a New York BigLaw partnership. It shows you know how the system works. You need not even move as Miami is New York's "sixth borough".

Spain's Judicial Blowhards

"Spain is moving to rein in its investigative judges for trying alleged crimes against humanity from around the world, a roles that has led to high-profile cases against the governments of the US, China, Israel and others. ... The six investigating judges of Spain's National Court, employing the so-called principle of universal jurisdiction, are now handling 13 cases involving events that took place in other countries, from Rwanda to Iraq. One judge, Baltasar Garzon, is investigating allegations of US torture at Guantanamo Bay. Another is probing allegations that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza. A third has summoned Chinese government ministers to testify about the crackdown on protests in Tibet. ... The move to limit the judges alarmed human-rights campaigners. 'There will be more impunity,' Hugo Relva, legal adviser to Amnesty International said before Tuesday's vote. ... The Chinese government warned Spain that bilateral relations could be damaged over the case regarding Tibet crackdowns. The Israeli government strongly criticized the investigation into its 2002 attack on a Hamas leader, which killed 14 other people. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the case 'makes a mockery out of international law.' ... Behind the scenes, however, US officials have met with the Spanish government and its prosecutors to try to halt the two cases related to the US prison camp, according to officials of both countries. ... Spain's ... attorney-general, Candido Conde-Pumpido, warned recently that the justice system risked being turned into a 'plaything'," Thomas Catan at the WSJ, 20 May 2009.

How many divisions will Spain send to Communist China to try to enforce its summons? Not enough!

BP Justice

"A division of BP officially became a felon Thursday when a federal judge accepted a long-pending plea bargain to resolve a criminal investigation into the deadly 2005 explosion at the company's Texas City refinery. US District Judge Lee Rosenthal ordered BP to pay the agreed-upon $50 million fine by Monday and comply with blast-related settlements with regulators while on probation for three years. ... Victims say the fine is too small, that BP has failed to abide by blast-related settlements with regulators and that prosecutors bypassed a 2004 federal victim rights law requiring prosecutors to confer with victims before drafting the accord. ... In a 138-page order, Rosenthal noted that the case is among the few in which the government successfully applied a felony violation to an industrial accident. ... Brent Coon, the attorney who represented [Linda] Rowe and headed up massive civil litigation stemming from the blast, said the fine 'equates to the cost of a traffic ticket for an individual'," Kristen Hays at the Houston Chronicle, 13 March 2009.

I referred to this rotten case before, here for example: 13 May and 12 August 2008:

http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/05/doj-v-people-of-harris-county.html.
http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/08/coming-palmer-raids.html.

There just ain't no justice no more.

Judicial Malfeasance

"At worst, Hillary Transue thought she might get a stern lecture when she appeared before a judge for building a spoof MySpace page mocking the assistant principal at her high school in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. She was a stellar student who had never been in trouble, and the page stated clearly at the bottom that it was just a joke. ... 'I felt like I had been thrown into some surreal sort of hightmare,' said Hillary, 17, who was sentenced in 2007 [to three months]. 'All I wanted to know was how this could be fair and why the judge would do such a thing.' The answers became clearer on Thursday as the judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care. ... 'In my entire career, I've never heard of anything remotely approaching this,' said Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim, who was appointed by the State Supreme Court this week to determine what should be done with the estimated 5,000 juveniles who have been sentenced by judge Ciavarella since the scheme started in 2003. ... Prosecutors say the judges tried to conceal the kickbacks as payments to a company they control in Florida. ... But [AUSA] Gordon A. Zubrod said after hearing that the government continues to charge a quid pro quo. 'We're not negotiating that, no,' Mr. Zubrod said. 'We're not backing off.' ... For years, youth advocacy groups complained that Judge Ciavarella was unusually harsh. He sent a quarter of his juvenile defendants to detention centers from 2002 to 2006, compared with a state rate of 1 in 10. He also routinely ignored requests for leniency made by prosecutors and probation officers. ... Clay Yeager, the former director of the Office of Juvenile Justice in Pennsylavania, said typical juvenile proceedings are kept closed to the public to protect the privacy of children", Ian Urbina and Sean Hamill at the NYT, 13 February 2009, link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html.

Compare this to what regularly goes on in the DOJ. The DOJ sees kickbacks to a judge as "quid pro quo", but not law firm partnerships or law firms' fees, see my 31 December 2008 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/12/justice-department-extortion-racket-4.html. We can't see all the prosecutions the DOJ squashes to protect rich miscreants, squashed and paid for in legal fees.

Legal Inequality

"Much of what we read on the LRC page and elsewhere involves unjust or criminal actions by people employed by governments. Whether it be the aftermath of the infamous Duke Lacrosse Non-Rape. Non-Kidnapping, and Non-Sexual Assault Case, the Little Rascals Case, or yet another situation involving a wrongful prosecution and conviction, we are given example after example of government wrongdoing and outright criminal behavior. In any of these stories, one or more of all of the following will have occurred: (1) Prosecutors hide exculpatory eviodence or just lie, (2) prosecutors suborn perjured testimony, (3) police officers lie on the witness stand, and (4) judges sit back and do nothing while an innocent person is railroaded. ... What we rarely see, however, are the people who were at fault ever being charged as criminals or being on the end of lawsuits brought by the victims. Most of the times, the real victims have no recourse at all. The reason is that governments confer immunity upon those privileged to work in the police and 'justice' systems. ... In subsequent rulings, courts have spread immunity to prosecutors and police and others in government 'acting in their official duties.' ... If one steps back and examines the reasons given for immunity, they translate to the following: judges and legialators are not willing to expose the government employees in the 'justice' system to legal liability because it might 'distract' them from their duties or make them legally vulnerable. This reasoning is rich, very rich, and absolutely ironic. What they are saying is that police and those employed by the courts should not be subject to the very legal procedures that they force upon the rest of us. ... We cannot make police, prosecutors, and judges into honest people. However, we also have to understand that the very immunity that protects these goverment employees also provides a powerful incetive for fundamentally dishonest people to seek these careers", my emphasis, William Anderson (WA) 3 February 2009 at http://www.lewrockewell.com/anderson/anderson238.html.

"In fact, one of the reasons that Mallin was so sure of her identification was that police investigators insisted that Cole was the man and, in effect, confirmed for her the identification she had made. ... Let me put this case another way: Mike Brown, Cole's attorney, did a better job of investigating the case that did the Lubbock Police and Jim Bob Darnell. In fact, the official investigators failed in their efforts, and ultimately depended upon lies, bullying, and intimidation. ... I am not interested in hearing how police simply 'made a mistake'. If Mike Brown could figure out the case, why were the police and prosecution so reluctant to to the same?", WA, 8 February 2009 at http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson239.html.

Imagine suing SEC, OCC or Fed employees for negligence. Would we be in today's mess? Imagine suing the SDNY US attorneys for wasting government resources on prosecting insignificant financial crimes while no one in a position of authority at Citigroup, among other entities, has been indicted for anything. Imagine. Incentives count!

In part, this police inadequacy is a result of the drug war. See my 28 November 2007 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2007/11/law-is-ass-6.html. Don't be too enamored of the FBI either. Remember Unabomber, Joe Jett or the Richard Jewell cases?