There can be no equal justice
where the kind of trial a man
gets depends on the amount of money he has." - U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Hugo Black, Griffin v. Illinois, 373 U.S.12,(1964)
, THIS IS FUN
"If the motto ‘and justice
for all’ becomes ‘and justice
for those who can afford it’, we threaten the
very underpinnings of our
social contract." - Chief Justice
Ronald George California
Supreme Court, Annual
"State ofJudiciary"
Speech, 2001
We love Martin McMahon
From TCPalm, Stuart, FL
Regarding Judge Larry
Shack and his ludicrous
statement; “I’m going to
hand out a million years
served before I’m off the
bench,”
What do we have
here? Premeditation and
prejudice — already
sentencing people before
their cases are heard. He
is an elected egomaniac.
Let’s get together and
vote, or force this “judge”
into another venue —
maybe flippin’ burgers at
a hamburger stand. Then
the “judge” can claim more
than a billion served.
Martin McMahon Stuart, Fl
Steven with his son Trent
Steven & Trent
.....
it is estimated that 70 percent of low- to middle-income citizens can no
longer afford the cost of
justice in America. What would our Founding Fathers think?
Our
Constitution intended that only elected lawmakers be permitted to create
law,
yet judges create their own law in the judicial system based on their
own opinions and rulings. It's called case law, and it is churned out
daily through the rulings of judges. When a judge hands down a ruling
and that ruling survives appeal with the next tier of judges, it then
becomes case law, or legal precedent. This now happens so consistently
that we've become more subject to the case ruling laws made by the
lawmaking of judges rather than
elected bodies outlined in our Constitution.....
That
would be O.K. if the judges would read the facts of the case they are
presiding on, and then make a decision. In most cases they do not read
or listen but dozing on the bench,
therefore they are making their ruling solely on the prosecutor's theory
and base their opinion and ruling on it bypassing the
constitution.
....This case-law system is a constitutional nightmare because it
continuously modifies Constitutional intent. For lawyers, however, it
creates endless business opportunities. That's because case law is
technically complicated and requires a lawyer's expertise to guide and
move you through the system.
The judicial system may begin with enacted laws, but the variations that
result from a judge's application of case law all too often change the
ultimate meaning.
16-year sentence for consensual sex.
Steven and his wife may have messed up but they handled the situation better than
the State of Florida and the US Justice system ever will. They were a family, something
the US Justice system doesn't understand. And what is most important they were
happy together. The pictures don't lie. Until State of Florida, Judge
Larry Schack & US Justice system
destroyed this family on Jan. 09 2007 when they sentenced Steven to 16 Years
prison time. Prior to the legal system
entering this picture, Steven, Tiffany and Trent stood a good chance of making it as a
couple and a family. At the time of sentencing their third wedding anniversary was
coming up.
Given the facts
that Steven was 27, his wife 20 and their son Trent 4 years old and that they are a
family unit. How can
the judge
pass a sentence on Steven of 16 years for
consensual relations with now his wife.
Why did
Larry Shack gave Steven 16 years and at the same time allow another men who was
charged with the same crime walk away with probation?
Here are a few cases tried around same time and one by the same judge, Larry
Schack.
Port St. Lucie, Fl
Michael A. Brown 47 years old charged with
lewd and lascivious battery with 13 year old girl plus Grand Theft, Possession of Drug
Paraphernalia ... got Time served in county jail (14 months) plus 4 year probation.
Now, that is a pedophile and the
judge let him walk.
West Palm Beach Brian
J. Taylor (Teacher) Had 2 year
sexual relationship with 16 year old student. Case was dropped.
Martin County, Fl
Judge Larry Schack sentence
Ari Ravon Stanberry
for lewd and lascivious battery plus 3 prior felony to 2 years Sex Offender
Community Control and 4 year probation.
For the same thing Judge Larry
Shack gave Steven a 16 year sentence. After reading the full story below, can
someone explain how that can happen, explain to his 5 year old son, Trent.
This case is a travesty of justice.
We are not endorsing Stevens' conduct. What he did was illegal, and he deserved to
be punished for it. But the punishment has to fit the crime, and the punishment
has to be proportionate to what any other person, similarly situated, would receive.
So was it just another selective enforcement of the law as well as cruel and unusual
punishment contrary to the Constitution's 8th amendment?
And then
the judge has the audacity to say this to Steven:
" I certainly hope this was worth it for you
because it has destroyed your life, this young lady's life and caused permanent damage
to your son."
What he meant by that we don't know.
What we do know is his ludicrous out of courtroom statement:
“I’m going
to hand out a million years served before I’m off the bench,” what do we have here?
Premeditation and prejudice— already sentencing people before their cases are heard.
He is an elected egomaniac.
And what we do know is that he
most certainly destroy Steven's life, his marriage, his child's relationship with him.
How has justice been served in this situation
when everything around this case lies in tatters, lives ruined and torn apart.
Prior to the legal system entering this picture, Steven, young lady and Trent
stood a good chance of making it as a couple and a family.
Giving 16
years prison sentence to a man who had consensual relations with his wife
when she was almost 16 year old, but not hearing witnesses or
acknowledging what they have said about circumstances that surround this incident it is preposterous. That is when State
calls its own
violence law, but that of the individual crime.
The Judge must have been sleeping at the bench if he didn't hear what Steven
has done for Tiffany and his son from early pregnancy. She was "
victimized " by the State of Florida childs welfare,
and the school system long before Steven arrived in her life. She drop out of
Hi school at age 12 and no one did anything about it. It was not at all
as portrayed by prosecutor and Judge Larry
Schack. Steven in fact was a positive influence in her life. He
encouraged her to get her life back on track and when she was with him she was
on her way to a normal life. When Trent was born no one cared
except one man who realized that mistakes had been made and he accepted the
responsibility of this from early pregnancy. He took Tiff to the doctor for
checkups, he was at the hospital for the birth, he cut the umbilical cord. He
put his name on the birth certificate without any proof at the time that he
was the father. He was helping and care for the boy until
all came crashing down once the state got into it.
This man went through hell the past 4 years
and has already served 4 1/2 years in jail. After all, he is not just a
number in the penal system, he is a husband, a father of a 6 year old,
a brother and son to someone. He will be the first to admit that he made
a mistake and he did everything in his power to try and make things right
afterwards.
We realize that the penal system was
setup to be punitive in nature and not remedial. But 16 years sentence is
extremely excessive for the nature of the offense committed.
The disparity
of treatment in these cases as compared to the sixteen year sentence
that Steven received is blatant and very obvious. How can this be
explained with any cohesiveness and reason? How can some people "walk"
and some serve a good part of their lives behind bars? Why is the
judicial system not accountable for such disparity of sentencing and why isn't
there more transparency in the system?
The
individual state's need to revise their statutory rape laws to reflect what is
going on in the twenty-first century and the sexual behavior of teen's and
young people today. From ABC morning news and talk show,
Good Morning America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj8p94a81ZE Until that time comes, sex
education classes should be more all-inclusive in explaining the legal
consequences of premarital sex by teenagers not just the caveat to "use
condoms". There are many more legal consequences to teenage sex than
just STD's and unwanted pregnancies.
Aside
from the above consequences, spending many years in prison is one very big
failure of the system. IT SERVES NO PURPOSE. Few teenagers
and their parents are aware that serious jail time is a very real possibility
in underage sex. Rather than changing the law in the failed
system, the system is further punishing the offender.
In addition to jail time, as things presently stand, the offender, once
released is put on a Sex Offender Registry and in a very real sense, this
"sentence" lasts a lifetime and its repercussions follow the individual
for all of his life. True pedophiles need to be put on such
a list, not young people who are behaving in the norm for their age bracket by
today's way of life.
The State
of Florida is a leader among other states in creating of social problems,
Tiffany for example, having her own problems, she can't take care of
their child by herself she needs help from her parents who are presently
taking care of their son. And at the end Steven? He worked hard full
time, attend college at night and
was attempting to run started up "12Volt Fusion" an automotive
audio-video business and was taken away from all this. Hi will be 41 years
old when he'll get out of prison. No education, no work experience. Label of
pedophile on his forehead that will have to carry for life. What will happen
to him? Probably another social problem because it is a good chance that
he will not be able to get a job. His parents probably not going
to be around anymore to guide him or help him. Changes in
sentencing law and policy, not increases in crime rates, explain most of the
six-fold increase in the national prison population. And “one size fits
all" mandatory minimum sentences that allow little or no consideration for
individual characteristics as in case above.
How many prisoners have been victimized with maximum or near maximum
sentencing just for a prosecutor's career ambition to be furthered, mostly to
become judges? They rack up convictions like scalps on an Indian's belt just
to secure their career goals. The prosecutor in this case, Kathy Roberts of
Martin County, has achieved her crowning goal and became judge shortly after
she charge and prosecute Steven.Keri Smith
took Roberts
job so Stevens
conviction become trophy on his belt and soon he will be joining
the club of judges.
Is that how we solving a
problems? Is that right thing to do? All the wrong choices. How can we
be the leader to the world if we are becoming a laughing stock of the world.
We need to take a good look at the
our own back yard our own living room our kids room. What do they see and read
on the internet? Don't even go there. They are watching nip/tuck for
breakfast, lunch and diner. The most sexual TV series I have ever watch on a
regular TV channels. And then we are sending them to 16 years in prison for
having consensual sex? From ABC morning news and talk show,
Good Morning America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
State
Department also have the nerve to send out complaints every year to 180
nations abut human rights violation? Mr. President, House of
Representatives, Senators, the People of The United States, take a good
look in to our prisons and you will never again complain about human right
violations. How sad!
It
is disgrace, that an 8-year-old boy from Arizona going to be charged
with the premeditated murder of his father and his friend. Police
are pushing to have the boy tried as an adult even as they investigate
possible abuse. Since when an 8 year old can
premeditate murder? And then be tried as an adult, but 15 year old can't
consent to have sex? What is wrong with you people?
It is a
fact that 70-80% of US prisoners within one year are back in prison. In Europe
for example the number is reversed, 80% of them get job and become normal law
abiding citizens. Why is that? And why is crime rate in Europe 10 times
les per capita. Crime within the prisons is almost non existing. They
give prisoners some dignity, something to look forward when they get out.
Prisoners in Europe work in every prison, making furniture, sheet metal work,
farming, teaching etc. They feel productive, they are productive.
They learn new skills, develop working habit.
What comes out of US prisons? Vast majority come out as poorly
educated criminals, street fighters, drug traffickers and even murderers and
they are back in prison within 6 to 8 months.
Spending many years in prison is one very big failure of the
system. It serves no purpose.The United States is a nation
of laws badly written and randomly enforced.
Wilson released
after two years behind bars for teen sexconviction. The judge courageously wrote:
If this court or any court cannot recognize the
injustice of what has occurred here, then our court system has lost sight of
the goal our judicial system has always strived to accomplish....justice
being served in a fair and equal manner.
Steven’s
punishment was excessive too, and
should be reduced just like Wilson's, just like the prison sentence
for former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, which was commuted
by President Bush.
Unfortunately, we cannot get the attention of civil rights activists as Al
Sharpton or Jesse Jackson or Attorney like B.J. Bernstein, and it
appears that without high-profile help, situations like this remain unknown
and out of the public eye and without media attention people stay in prisons.
As Al Sharpton said in
Genarlow Willsons case.
“If he had a different complexion and a
different connection, we wouldn’t be here today.”
Neither would Steven if he had a different conection. And he doesn't have
Al Sharpton on his side. All he has, is this website and you!
The state calls its own
violence law, but that of the individual crime.
And,
lastly, why is it believed by a state that a fifteen year old is not mature
enough to enter into consensual sexual relationship but yet in the same state
is able to stand trial as an adult in a murder case as was the case of the
thirteen year old boy who accidentally killed a neighbor friend in Florida?
The state cannot have it both ways!
After watching this
reports on young people sexual behavior today, do you think 16 years prison
time Steven got was fair and just?
Editors note.
Jan. 10. 2009
All of the above I wrote about 3 years ago is now coming to light.
NEW
YORK States budgets in crisis, governors, legislators and prison
officials across the nation are making or considering policy changes that will
likely remove tens of thousands of offenders from prisons and parole
supervision.
Collectively, the pending and proposed initiatives could add up to one of
biggest shifts ever in corrections policy, putting into place cost-saving
reforms that have struggled to win political support in the tough-on-crime
climate of recent decades.
"Prior to this fiscal crisis, legislators could tinker around the edges — but
we're now well past the tinkering stage," said Marc Mauer, executive director
of the Sentencing Project, which advocates alternatives to incarceration.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28592088/
Trimming fast-rising costs Policy-makers in Michigan, one of four
states that spend more money on prisons than higher education, are
awaiting a report later this month from the Council of State
Governments' Justice Center on ways to trim fast-rising corrections
costs, likely including sentencing and parole modifications.
In Florida,
where prisons are so crowded that the
state has acquired tents for possible use to house inmates,
officials say 19 new prisons may be needed over the next five years.
As an alternative, Corrections Secretary Walter McNeil told
lawmakers they should re-evaluate the state's hard-line sentencing
policies and look at ways to help released inmates avoid returning
to prison.
California,
5 Aug 2009
Federal judges order California to release 43,000
inmates. examiner.com
California has torelease up to 58,000 inmates,
or roughly 40% of the total prison population, says a three-judge
panel convened to deal with the state's massively overcrowded
prisons. That's not really that much of a shocker -- the state is
currently jamming its holding pens full of human bodies at roughly
200% of capacity, with the inhumane conditions you'd expect as a
result. But who to release? The obvious answer, it would seem, is to
start with California's sizeable population of people who shouldn't
be behind bars at all those convicted of consensual "crimes" or drug
related offenses.
"These laws have neither curbed drug use
nor enhanced public safety," said Donna Lieberman of the New York
Civil Liberties Union. "Instead, they have ruined thousands of lives
and annually wasted millions of tax dollars in prison costs."
Probation & Parole supervisions are waste of time, waste of taxpayer's money
as they DO NOT function as intended and do not protect the community in
anyway. States where people on probation have to pay $30 to $60 in
probation fees, makes it even more difficult for them to stay clean as the
jobs they get as ex- cons pay minimum wages and the state takes almost half of
their salary. In most cases they can't leave the area or state to look for a
better job, so 80 % of them are back in prison within 8 months average.
In many countries around the world where inmates on probation or out on parole
are not monitored at all. In fact they have a simple process; if the parolees
commit a crime or any offense during that period, they will be charged with
the new crime plus violation of probation or parole and will serve time for
both. This method does not cost anything and saves millions of taxpayers’
money. Ex-inmates find jobs much easier than their counterparts in the US
because only the police and justice system know about their criminal record,
unlike in the US where you can easily find a person's criminal record by just
pulling their credit history. Best of all, the foreign system works; eighty
percent of ex-offenders become good, law-abiding citizens. So wake up America;
it is time to change our judicial system and reintegrate the nonviolent,
ex-offenders back into society by giving them equal opportunities to succeed
like other citizens--not the
second class citizenship that they currently have.
Here is what
people of the United State think about US justice
MtMike-571674.newsvine.com
When did facts matter to a populace so brainwashed into thinking their
government can do no wrong. This is America, use scare tactics.
When one is speaking of releasing prisoners early, it is the non-violent that
heads the list to be released, not murders, rapists or robbers.
Law enforcement and the "penal system" operating in the manner they do, is
just another government welfare program for those employed in these branches.
A way to have a job that is not needed.
These people employed in law enforcement are not serving America, but are
operating under a false sense of self importance. The real criminals are the
DRUG WAR PROFITEERS who are fighting the war on crime/drugs, but not doing
anything to win the war, just collecting their pay checks and inventing new
criminals/crimes so they will stay employed.
Government is not a cure for all. Locking people up, forcing these people to
behave as you think they should, will not save society from its own stupidity.
Linda Frazzetto commenting on to the TCPalm news paper article.
Another thing that really sticks in my craw is the labeling of Steven by the
judge as a "child abuser" and "pedophile". Anyone reading what has been said
about Steven by the Judge would jump to some pretty wrong conclusions without
knowing all the facts, especially when the child was at the center of all of
this when he was accidentally hurt. One would surmise from this that Steven
abused his child rather than what we assume is the judge's assumption of
Steven being a child abuser/pedophile for having sex with the child's underage
mother. This is really over the top and a very bad disconnect in this case.
And then the Judge ends his sentencing of Steven with "causing permanent
damage to your son". What is one to assume from all of this? The words used by
the Judge and not explained in the context of what he is saying is really a
gross injustice to Steven. And then the newspapers pickup pieces of the story
and without the whole reference of the case, cause even more confusion for the
readers.
Needless to say, this is a very difficult time for all of us. It is pretty sad
when a sixteen year sentence is given out so lightly, with little concern for
the ramifications of such a sentence on all the lives involved.
Jordan
Brown Superior Court Appeal: Will Pa. Boy be Tried as an Adult
for Murder?
Only in the U.S. can an 11 year old be arrested and charged as
an adult for murder and a 16
year old can't consent with 22 year old
boyfriend, what a
farce.
Jordan Brown Mug Shot (APPhoto/LawrenceCounty Prison via Beaver
County Times)
PICTURES: Kenzie
Houk
PITTSBURGH (CBS/KDKA/AP)Jordan Brown was only 11-years-old when
he was arrested and charged as an adult for the murder of his
father's pregnant fiance.
A three judge panel of the Superior Court met in Pittsburgh
Tuesday to hear from both sides as to whether or not the boy
should in fact be tried as an adult, reports
CBS station KDKA.
Now 13, Brown is charged with shotgunning 26-year-old Kenzie
Marie Houk, also killing her unborn son, in their New Galilee
farmhouse in February 2009.
A Lawrence County judge in March refused to move Jordan
Brown's case to juvenile court. Judge Dominick Motto found
that the boy showed no signs of remorse and did not take
responsibility for his actions.
How could he? He was 11, you idiot!
Two judges questioned whether Brown has had his Fifth
Amendment right against self-incrimination violated by Motto.
Some of the appellate judges at Tuesday's hearing wondered
whether Brown would be forced to give up his Fifth Amendment
right to remain silent in order to be certified as a juvenile.Only the United
States and Somalia have refused to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child, which does not allow persons under the age of 18 to be sentenced to
life in prison without possibility of release, reports the
Guardian
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20029737-504083.html
Your Ad maybe posted here. Be the first to help.
Save Jordan Brown
Eleven-year-old 5th grader Jordan Brown is charged as an adult for a double
homicide he did not commit.
Pennsylvania
state police conducted an inadequate investigation which ignored important
leads; the media have convicted Jordan of the crime without any credible
evidence.
Under a
Pennsylvania law aimed at urban street gangs, Jordan faces the prospect of
spending his entire life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jordan Brown urgently needs your financial support to mount an effective
defense and prove his innocence.
Jordan’s defense team is working Pro Bono, but the expert witnesses
who must be hired to prove Jordan’s innocence are not. They will also have
many out-of-pocket expenses to conduct their investigations, as well as for
travel, lodging, etc. during the trial.
Please
Contribute Today.Jordan’s life and future depend on you!
To make a contribution by mail with check, money order, or credit card
please contact us at: The Jordan Brown Trust Fund PO Box 1531 New Castle, PA 16103
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Truth, Justice and the American Way
SAVE JORDAN BROWN
An update, Tuesday, September 27, 2011 12:15 am | Updated: 9:30 pm, Mon
Sep 26, 2011.
Jordan Brown juvenile trial delayed By Eric Poole Calkins Media
Timesonline.com | 9 comments
NEW CASTLE -- The murder prosecution of Jordan Brown -- which has yet to
begin more than two and a half years after the alleged crime -- will take
a little longer.
A juvenile trial for Brown, scheduled for today, has been delayed pending
an appeal by media outlets that petitioned unsuccessfully last week to
have the hearing open to the public. Lawrence County Judge John Hodge, who
will hear the juvenile trial, denied media petitions to have the trial in
open court. Hodge released the decision late Friday afternoon without
comment in a two-page order.
Pennsylvania Superior Court on Monday agreed to delay the trial until the
court can hear emergency appeals to open the proceeding.
Lawyers for the media outlets have 62 days to submit other documents
before the court assigns a three-judge panel to hear the request.
Brown is accused in the Feb. 20, 2009, murder of Kenzie Houk, 26, of New
Beaver. Houk and her two children were living at the time with Brown and
his father, Christopher, and the couple planned to marry. Houk was
pregnant with Christopher Brown's child at the time of her death. The
fetus did not survive. State police and prosecutors maintain that Jordan
Brown killed Houk with a single shotgun blast to the back of her head.
Jordan Brown, now 14, was 11 years old when the slaying took place, but he
was charged as an adult under a state law dictating that minors charged
with murder be tried in adult court. The defense attorneys filed in late
2009 to decertify Brown and clear the way to move the trial into the
juvenile system.
In March 2010, Lawrence County President Judge Domenick Motto ruled to
keep the prosecution in adult court, but the decision was overturned on
appeal by state Superior Court. In a new decertification hearing ordered
by Superior Court, Motto ruled to have Brown tried as a juvenile.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Anthony Krastek is prosecuting the case.
Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said the
arguments over closing Brown's juvenile trial to the public centered on a
state law that, in Krastek's interpretation, prohibits public trials for
suspects who are younger than 12 when the crime is committed.
The attorney general's office had no objection to the juvenile trial being
open to the media and the public, Frederiksen said, but conceded that
state law doesn't permit it.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
America's
international standing as a fair and just country does not
match its superpower status as the world's greatest democracy.
When it comes to basic human rights, it is there in the gutter
alongside some of the world's most
toxic dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. Having stepped inside
US prisons -- both military and civilian -- I can tell you there is
nothing
civilized about the penal institutions in the United States.
Four days of filming inside
Guantanamo and half a day at one of California's largest young offenders
prisons provided me with enough material to reach his conclusion, bearing
in mind as a journalist I was just shown “the good bits”! Having also
viewed CCTV footage of detainees in US institutions being stripped and
cavity searched was equally traumatic and for those who showed the
slightest resistance a procedure would follow which in my view is
tantamount to gang rape. Frankly, I was appalled by what I saw inside
American jails and the interviews and research which followed did not make
easy reading.
I wondered how the US could really describe itself as a civilized,
mature democracy. And if you
doubt my judgment here are a few statistics to play with in a prison
system
where 70 percent of the inmates are non-whites. The US has a higher
percentage of its citizenry
in prison than any other country in world history.
25 percent of the world's prison population -- around 2.3 million --
are caged in America, as young as 11 year old are charged as adult and
locked up with adults.The evidence is there for all to see -- America's
human rights record is appalling, the prison system is a disgrace and the
way it treats its own convicted citizens, let alone foreigners, is
primitive.
Gareth Peirce, an
internationally acclaimed and respected solicitor based in London,
explains in her book Dispatches from the Dark Side, “Guilty pleas
resolve 97% of US trials, an extraordinary statistic inevitably achieved
by the defendant's apprehension of what lies ahead -- not just for the
'worst of the worst' - and a desire to avoid, at any cost, the US law's
most extreme application.”
A number of her clients including
Syed Talha Ahsan, Babar Ahmad, Adel Abdel Bary and Khalid al-Fawwaz have
been held in British prisons for a record amount of years fighting
extradition to the US.
All of these men protest their innocence
and would welcome their day in court -- a British court. However the
evidence against them is either so flimsy or nonexistent that police in
the UK have no intention of wasting public money on trials which will
end up being laughed out of court.
Which takes us back to the
2003 US Extradition agreement in which the Blair government tied the
hands of the UK judiciary beyond sound judgment; now any slight
allegation made by the US should be regarded in British courts as solid
proof.
By the way, it's not a two-way system. Should the UK ever
wish to extradite a US citizen, the evidence supplied must be well
documented, concrete and factual and able to withstand the scrutiny of a
US judge.
Britain's legal
system became the basis for most others in the world. It is based on
presumed innocence and a trial by a jury of one's peers which emanates
from our rights as set out in the Magna Carta of 1215, a noble document
which has stood the test of time.
The 2003 Extradition Treaty is
a complete betrayal of those basic rights. A victim of the treaty faces
being locked up without evidence and has no right to a trial by jury
and gone is the presumption of innocence.
We
cannot allow anyone in UK custody or under “house arrest” like Julian
Assange to be extradited to the US. You just have to look at the
treatment of America's own citizens to realize this. Bradley
Manning, the 22-year-old US Army Private accused of leaking classified
documents to Wikileaks, has been held in solitary confinement for the
last seven months, despite not having been convicted of any crime.
Manning
has been kept alone in a cell for 23 hours a day, barred from
exercising in that cell, deprived of sleep, and denied even a pillow or
sheets for his bed. Unsurprisingly he now relies on anti-depressants to
cope with the effects of isolation. No date for a court hearing has been
set. Make no mistake, this sort of treatment is torture and we,
as a civilized nation, cannot send anyone into the hands of the US
judicial system which openly tortures its own citizens as well as
others.
But don't stop there! Every
year the State Department of the U.S. sending a complaint letters to
one hundred and eighty countries around the world reminding them of
their human right violations.
Judges are but men, and are swayed like other men by vehement
prejudices. This is corruption in reality, give it whatever other name you
please. ~David Dudley Field
Laws: We know what
they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty,
steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of the government.
~Pierre Joseph Proudhon, quoted in The Match!