Rights and responsibilities
The moving finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it
Quatrain LI Rubaiyat
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khayyam>
Omar Khayyam (1048-1131 AD)
One of the most frustrating and exasperating tasks facing the
Equal Justice Foundation (EJF) is dealing with the numerous
individuals who call or write after they have taken a plea bargain to
charges of domestic violence, violating a restraining order, child
abuse, sexual abuse, or what have you.
Let me state up front that I am a
<http://www.marquiswhoswho.net/charleselmocorry/Default.aspx>research
scientist, not a miracle worker! Yes, I know:
The plea bargain took away most of your civil rights, including the
right to have a gun for hunting or any other purpose for life.
Gave primary custody of your children to your ex-wife and you've
never seen the kids again, or possibly only under paid-for supervised
visitation.
You thought the restraining order was a civil matter and all you
wanted to do was see or talk to your kids.
Lost your job, and security clearance, and you can't find another one
because of your conviction.
You are now homeless and living in your car, under a bridge, or with
relatives at best.
That you will be deported if you are not a citizen.
She was having an affair and filed false charges against you and she
and her attorney lied in court.
The police hassled you and wouldn't listen to you.
You have nerve damage in your hands because the handcuffs were too
tight, too low, and left on too long.
The DA (prosecutor) lied to you and treated you like dirt, or a
"trained killer" if you are a veteran.
Your attorney took your money for his/her retainer and then advised
you to take a plea bargain without telling you what the consequences
would be.
The judge wouldn't listen to you.
The DV treatment program you were forced to attend, and pay for, was
nothing more than 36 weeks of redfem propaganda and ideology.
Note that the above comments refer to male defendants but female
defendants, about 25% of the total, receive much the same treatment.
Before I became a scientist I took some sensitivity training with
Marine Corps infantry (1st Marines). From that experience I note that
it doesn't really matter how scared, nervous, shocked, frightened,
intimidated, sleep deprived, or what other condition you were in when
you accepted the plea bargain.
You, and you alone are responsible for pleading guilty when you
accept the plea bargain. If you say you are guilty then you are
guilty. It is not my responsibility, or that of the EJF to try and
turn back the clock. And if you are afraid to face a jury of your
peers it simply reinforces the public assumption that you are guilty.
Having pled guilty, every judge, prosecutor, employer, treatment
provider, child evaluator, or man in the street has to assume you are
guilty, no ifs, ands, or buts.
Turning the situation around
Any number of correspondents have suggested we adopt the
nonviolent resistance methods of Mahatma Gandi and Martin Luther
King. In fact, we have done so but it needs your cooperation to
succeed.
What the Equal Justice Foundation is trying to do is reduce the
number of people who accept a plea bargain and
<http://www.dvmen.org/dv-6.htm>inform defendants of their rights
and
the <http://www.dvmen.org/dv-8.htm>implications of a conviction.
We
have had some success with that.
The entire DV industry and legal system depends on defendants
accepting a plea bargain. In most jurisdictions 90% to 99% of
convictions are the result of plea bargains. The whole process comes
to a halt if defendants take the nonviolent step of simply pleading
not guilty and demanding a jury trial because the system can't handle
the load.
Slavery ended when juries would not convict under runaway slave
laws. Prohibition ended when juries would not convict under liquor
laws. And today juries routinely acquit in domestic violence and
related cases. In fact, most jurisdictions dismiss 70% to 95% of such
cases without going to trial because the prosecutors know they can't
get a conviction in front of a jury.
Thus there is a very simple, effective way to stop the current
injustices. If every defendant, or even half of them, would plead Not
Guilty and demand a jury trial the current mass incarcerations would
cease within months.
We know this is an effective approach because, as the number of
not guilty pleas has increased in the past few years, prosecutors
have begun using more strong-arm methods to coerce defendants into
accepting a plea bargain. Such tactics have included, but are not
limited to:
Long delays before allowing defendants to post bail for such specious
reasons as they can't be released without an electronic monitor and
one isn't available. 5 to 20 days has become common before allowing
defendants to post bail and the current record I've heard about is
over 6 years imprisonment for William Christopher in Santa Clara
County, California.
When the defendant is allowed to bond out the bail is frequently set
at ridiculous amounts. A $50,000 bond is a common amount for a first
offender but $250,000 isn't unusual. The record I've heard about in
a
DV case is $600,000. Meanwhile murderers often go free on less bail
than these amounts.
Long delays, months, before an arraignment hearing is held, and the
clock doesn't start ticking on speedy trial requirements until the
defendant is arraigned and charges formally filed. All the while the
mandatory restraining order is in effect, movements may be monitored
with an electronic device, visitation with one's children is stopped
or severely restricted, mental health treatment may be ordered, and
<http://www.dvmen.org/dv-7.htm#pgfId-1001962>other punishments
imposed. It isn't unusual for a DV case to drag on for years before
being scheduled for trial. Then the DA will usually dismiss the case
the day before or the morning of the trial.
Most despicable of all has been an increase in outright torture in
attempts to force guilty pleas. In a joint effort with
<http://true-equality.blogspot.com/>True Equality Network we now
have
31 verified cases of victims subjected to both genital electrocution
and hypothermia torture, and 61 cases of torture using hypothermia
alone.*
There are always costs and risks when standing up for your
rights. But freedom has never been free and rights can be quickly
surrendered. The EJF is here to help protect your rights, not
sympathize with you after you surrender them.
If you've already made the mistake of taking a plea bargain you
can help by joining us, or simply passing the word along about our
efforts and telling the next guy not to take a plea bargain no matter
how good it sounds at the time. But if you, your friends, and
neighbors won't stand up for your basic rights, the EJF's hands are
tied.
POSTSCRIPT
In yesterday's EJF newsletter regarding plea
bargains I mentioned the highest bail I'd seen to
date for a DV case was $600,000. In response a
subscriber sent me the article below.
A man in Aspen, Colorado, is now being held on
$1 million bail for misdemeanor charges
purportedly related to domestic violence. Note
that there does not appear to have been any
actual violence in this case, as in most cases of
this type.
What woman or man can claim they've never
stated: "I'm gonna kill him (or her)!" for some
real of imagined transgression of their partner?
Also note that none of the reported "threats" are
made directly to the "victim." Hence, they
cannot be considered terroristic threats, a new
twist in today's Orwellian world.
In this case we are asked to believe hearsay
testimony throughout. That is quite typical of
redfem propaganda cases. If "they" or the
"victim" said something happened, or was said, it
must be gospel truth. Documented evidence is
considered superfluous and is frequently
inconvenient.
From the available evidence it appears
extremely unlikely that a jury would convict, and
a competent jurist would be unlikely to admit
much of such evidence at trial. Therefore, other
methods must be employed. Inasmuch as the 8th
Amendment's guarantee against excessive bail is
an outdated concept of dead white males, redfem
ideology makes it quite acceptable to coerce a
plea bargain by setting bail for a misdemeanor at
$1 million.
And quite satisfactorily, from the redfem
viewpoint, the career and life of a 58-year-old
man has been destroyed by hearsay, rumor,
innuendo, and gossip whether he is guilty or not.
Not only is Mr. Becker guilty unless and until he
can prove his innocence, he is forever guilty
even if proven innocent. For why else would a
"judge" impose bail of $1,000,000 if he was not a
most dangerous criminal?
For comparison, in the case of Mary Winkler,
who shot her minister husband in the back at
close range with a 12-gauge shotgun as he lay in
bed in Selmer, Tennessee,
<http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060708/NEWS03/607080347/1017/NEWS>bail
was set at $750,000 on July 7th.
Clearly we have moved beyond the rule of law
into the realm of science fiction, as exemplified
in
<http://www.allscifi.com/topics/info_12983.asp>The
Minority Report.
