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Title: Pollard’s fate
Source:
JP
URL Source: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Pollards-fate-331098
Published: Nov 10, 2013
Author: JP Editorial
Post Date: 2013-11-10 12:54:16 by scrapper2
Keywords: NSA spying=Pollard, US govt
Views: 346
Comments: 25
Recent revelations of unbridled American espionage against its Western allies have exposed the hypocrisy and injustice that have kept Jonathan Pollard in prison for nearly three decades. Washington has always presented Pollard’s unprecedented life sentence, including seven years in solitary confinement, as a reasonable response to Israel’s unmitigated gall for running a spy in the US. Successive American administrations have consistently maintained a morally superior posture, posing as the injured party, insisting on perpetuating the excessive punishment of Israel’s agent. Although Israeli officials have been aware of American agents operating in Israel for decades, they have never openly confronted the US. Israel’s inexplicable cooperation notwithstanding, recent revelations of the US’s massive spy operations against 35 friendly nations (including Israel) have blown America’s cover and brought to light an egregious double standard and a stunning example of American hypocrisy. Nowhere is this hypocrisy more blatant than in America’s treatment of Jonathan Pollard. This has prompted many who have never done so before to begin calling for his release. Next week, Pollard begins his 29th year in prison for the crime of spying in the United States for the benefit of Israel. He never passed a single secret about America to Israel – only information about Israel’s enemies and their plans to destroy the Jewish state. Although the US judiciary is presumed to be independent of the political echelon, in reality it is not that simple. • A grossly disproportionate sentence, • A broken plea agreement, • The use of secret evidence, • A false charge of treason, • Ineffective assistance of counsel, • Ex parte communication between prosecutors and judge, • A lack of due process, and • A sentencing procedure infected by false allegations and lies. Cal Thomas, whose column is syndicated in 550 American newspapers and whose voice is heard on more than 300 American talk shows, wrote in USA Today last week: “President Obama should order the release of Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a life sentence for spying in the US on behalf of Israel." “If everyone who spied on us and we on them went to prison, no one would have any spies left,” he wrote. Thomas’s argument seems to suggest that two wrongs can make a right: The US did wrong. Pollard did wrong. If the US can be forgiven, then Pollard must be forgiven. Normally this kind of logic does not apply, but this time it must. Pollard’s life sentence is the longest, harshest sentence in the history of the United States for the one count of passing classified information to an ally with which he was charged. The usual sentence is two to four years. The US government’s own damage assessments, now declassified, put the lie to allegations of damage against Pollard. Even Caspar Weinberger, the former US defense secretary who drove Pollard’s life sentence, recanted before he died, admitting that the case against Pollard was greatly exaggerated. Nevertheless, Pollard has not been able to receive justice in the United States for nearly three decades. All indications are that he never will. Nor has any humane consideration ever been extended to him because of his failing health. Perhaps righteous indignation will be effective where justice and humanity have failed. If enough of a ruckus to free Pollard is raised now by all those who, like Cal Thomas, find the American administration’s hypocrisy hard to stomach, then indeed, there may be enough momentum created to motivate Pollard’s release. Pollard’s petition for executive clemency – his final hope – has been sitting on Obama’s desk since October 2010. All it requires is a stroke of the president’s pen. Speaking at a security conference in New York last week, former CIA director James Woolsey renewed his long-standing call for Pollard’s release. Asked if he had a message to send to Obama, Woolsey responded that he would tell the president to forget that Pollard is a Jew and just release him. Indeed. Poster Comment: "...recent revelations of the US’s massive spy operations against 35 friendly nations (including Israel) have blown America’s cover and brought to light an egregious double standard and a stunning example of American hypocrisy. Nowhere is this hypocrisy more blatant than in America’s treatment of Jonathan Pollard. This has prompted many who have never done so before to begin calling for his release." Agree? Disagree?
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#1. To: scrapper2 (#0)
Screw Pollard. Two wrongs don't make a right.
Pollard passed intelligence to Israel that they gave to the Soviets in exchange for more Jewish immigrants. That information got 1,000 American assets (foreigners working for the CIA) killed. There is a big difference between that reading all the emails in the world. And besides those 70 million phone calls from France were sent to Israel before they shared them with us. If Obama freed Pollard that would really anger the people that matter in the 17 US spy agencies and in the military. That would be a good thing considering we might be headed to a coup, martial law or a Civil War. The Truth of 911 Shall Set You Free From The Lie
I would have hanged him. I still would.
"Have Brain, Will Travel
What's the diff? USA=Israel.
Support bacteria. (The world needs more culture)
Good points about why Pollard's actions are not equivalent to spying. Pollard stole an extraordinary amount of classified documents - he betrayed America (his country!) and American assets at a level that rises well above criminality. It's insulting to us all that Woolsey insinuates that anti-Semitism is the reason for Pollard's lengthy incarceration (" he would tell the president to forget that Pollard is a Jew and just release him"). Woolsey conveniently forgets the fact that in 1988 the AJC's independent investigation proved that anti-Semitism allegations were INVALID. www.trutv.com/library/cri...ies/spies/pollard/12.html snip "...in 1988, the American Jewish Congress investigated the Pollard case and concluded that anti-Semitism was not a factor. Said Phil Baum, their executive director, "We made an independent effort and we could not document any charges of anti-Semitism, no evidence that he was treated differently."... Here's more on all the treachery committed by Pollard. Pollard is no ordinary spy! www.washingtontimes.com/n...llard/?page=all#pagebreak snip ... Joseph DiGenova, the former U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, said Tuesday that Pollard was a spy who was paid and who tried to entice others to join his operation. Mr. DiGenova said Pollard received about $500,000 a year plus expenses for giving intelligence documents to Israeli agents. “By the time he was caught, he caused enough damage to U.S. intelligence that, according to the Defense Department, it cost between $3 billion and $5 billion to fix because of what he compromised,” Mr. DiGenova said. “That the country he spied for is seeking clemency is not only unprecedented, it is a joke.” According to court documents and former intelligence officials close to the case, Pollard was rejected for a post at the CIA in 1977 and two years later went to work as a civilian intelligence analyst for the Navy. ...Pollard was able to walk out of his office with thousands of pages of classified intelligence documents because of poor security at the Naval Investigative Service headquarters in Suitland, Md. Officials said at the time that the documents revealed information about the identities of U.S. and allied agents and electronic eavesdropping programs, as well as data that compromised codes used in secret communications.... ...Mr. Clinton wrote in his memoir that “for all the sympathy Pollard generated in Israel, he was a hard case to push in America; he had sold our country’s secrets for money, not conviction, and for years had not shown any remorse. When I talked to [National Security Adviser] Sandy Berger and [CIA Director] George Tenet, they were adamantly opposed to letting Pollard go, as was [Secretary of State] Madeleine Albright.” Mr. Tenet at one point threatened to resign if Pollard was granted clemency, according to Mr. Tenet’s memoir... Here's an interesting short debate that took place on CNN in 2012 between Rep. Eliot Engel (who wants Pollard released) and Joseph DiGenova, the US prosecutor in the Pollard case. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBAIPSEbW9w Here's a summary of the debate from Philip Weiss's blog: mondoweiss.net/2012/06/wh...d-applied-for-parole.html snip ...The remarkable aspect of this exchange: Engel stuck robotically to his script – Pollard received the harshest sentence ever for someone spying for a “friendly” country. The gestalt: Pollard is the victim and so is Israel, because the U.S. was holding out on them on vital intelligence. Watching Engel was pathetic because he clearly had no depth on this issue. Di Genova set him straight on a lot of the facts that he had wrong about the case, especially the late Caspar Weinberger’s role in the harsh sentence. What was even more interesting, from my view, was the effect Engel’s behavior had on di Genova. My sense is that di Genova at the beginning of the exchange was sort of sympathetic to the view that Pollard had served enough time – recall as prosecutor he was willing to let Pollard cop a plea for less than the maximum sentence but the judge in the case ignored his recommendation and imposed it. But by the end of the exchange, di Genova was so ticked off with Engel’s bloviating on this issue that he had clearly shifted to the “let Pollard rot camp.” Di Genova pointed out that Pollard has never applied for parole. My sense is that he has not done so because he would have to agree to work with the Intelligence Community on a damage assessment. He also pointed out that Pollard had secretly taken Israeli citizenship and $500k in exchange for a 10 year deal with the Israelis to keep spying. Finally, what di Genova did not mention, but I have read and heard from very senior counterintelligence people involved in the case, is that our “friend” Israel took some of the most sensitive material Pollard gave them and traded it to the Soviets in exchange for the release of Soviet Jews. For intelligence professionals, the Pollard case is like the Liberty attack: An open sore that the lobby keeps picking....
If he hadn't taken the information, we'd have given it to them. “The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
What I suspect is that, as usual, we do not have all of the story, and the full story has never entered the public record. What I suspect is that Pollard learned something that under NO circumstances does the Intelligence-Industrial Complex want falling into Israeli (or any other) hands. I have no idea what it is, but the fact that he has been kept virtually incommunicado strongly suggests that as a probability. "“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.” ~ Gautama Siddhartha — The Buddha Yes, he's still got something in his head which is why Israel wants him so bad after all these years. Izzy's pursuit of his release is really irrational considering the amount of time that has passed since his arrest.
#2. To: scrapper2 (#0)
#3. To: scrapper2 (#0)
#4. To: scrapper2 (#0)
#5. To: Horse, All (#2)
#6. To: Obnoxicated (#4)
What's the diff? USA=Israel.
#7. To: scrapper2 (#0)
"...recent revelations of the US’s massive spy operations against 35 friendly nations (including Israel) have blown America’s cover and brought to light an egregious double standard and a stunning example of American hypocrisy. Nowhere is this hypocrisy more blatant than in America’s treatment of Jonathan Pollard. This has prompted many who have never done so before to begin calling for his release."
Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from evil. ~ Unk (Paraphrase of Clarke's 3rd Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.")
#8. To: Original_Intent (#7)
What I suspect is that Pollard learned something that under NO circumstances does the Intelligence-Industrial Complex want falling into Israeli (or any other) hands.
-Alex Kurtagic
#9. To: X-15 (#8)
Little bits and pieces indicating a deeper level game occasionally make it out. Wherever possible someone moves in and silences, one way or another, the unauthorized possessor of pieces of whatever it is. I have never gotten enough pieces, yet, to solve the puzzle. I think if I did this is one of those things where discretion would be the better part ... Of course there may be more than one puzzle to solve as well. This looks like a job for SHERLOCK HOLMES.
"“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.” ~ Gautama Siddhartha — The Buddha
Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from evil. ~ Unk (Paraphrase of Clarke's 3rd Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.")
#10. To: Original_Intent, X-15, Lod, Horse (#9)
Bad news, guys. Pollard is scheduled to be released on November 21, 2015 after serving 30 years. He doesn't need clemency. His parole will be automatic due to a U.S. law mandate. You can do the Google yourselves to verify what is stated below - damn! From wiki: snip At the time of Pollard's sentencing there was a rule that mandated parole consideration after 30 years of imprisonment for prisoners serving life sentences, who had maintained a clean record in prison. He is currently scheduled to be released November 21, 2015. His Federal Bureau of Prisons ID is #09185-016. He is incarcerated in FCI Butner Medium at the Butner Federal Correction Complex in North Carolina. The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) projects his release date as November 21, 2015.[52] Should Pollard be released in 2015, he will be escorted by FBI agents to the gates of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. and transferred to Israeli custody.[53]
#11. To: scrapper2 (#10)
snip At the time of Pollard's sentencing there was a rule that mandated parole consideration after 30 years of imprisonment for prisoners serving life sentences, who had maintained a clean record in prison. He is currently scheduled to be released November 21, 2015. Scheduled to be released? That sounds like a wiki-error. I don't think parole consideration is a parole guarantee. Otherwise, what's the explanation for all of the other life-sentence prisoners who've been denied parole by those review boards? From wiki:
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"They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
#12. To: GreyLmist (#11)
Check for yourself his inmate registration # at the Fed Bureau of Prisons website. The wiki information is correct. If he keeps his nose clean in prison for the next 2 years, it's a done deal. Even if there is a parole hearing, it will be a formality.
#13. To: scrapper2 (#12)
The wiki information is correct. If he keeps his nose clean in prison for the next 2 years, it's a done deal. Even if there is a parole hearing, it will be a formality. "At the time of Pollard's sentencing there was a rule that mandated parole consideration after 30 years of imprisonment for prisoners serving life sentences, who had maintained a clean record in prison." You're from California where some people are imprisoned for life due to the "Three Strikes Law" there -- yes? If the Fed Bureau of Prisons website states something to the effect that Jonathan Pollard is to be automatically paroled after 30 years, if he doesn't have any bad conduct demerits on his incarceration record or whatever, because he's specialer than other life-sentence prisoners with similar penitentiary conduct records who've served their entire sentences anyway because parole was denied them, please post that info for us. Check for yourself his inmate registration # at the Fed Bureau of Prisons website.
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"They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
#14. To: scrapper2, X-15, GreyLmist (#12)
Perhaps, but he was not kept in virtual solitary confinement all of this time for no reason. He knows something which is verrrrry "awkward" for the PTB. I would not consider it a "done deal" until he walks out the door and in front of a train. :-) Even if there is a parole hearing, it will be a formality.
"“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.” ~ Gautama Siddhartha — The Buddha
Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from evil. ~ Unk (Paraphrase of Clarke's 3rd Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.")
#15. To: Original_Intent (#14)
...virtual solitary confinement...virtual in the sense of a simulation...?...but I suppose our trusty Intel persons check occasionally to make sure he's really still in prison like we're told. Perhaps, but he was not kept in virtual solitary confinement all of this time for no reason. He knows something which is verrrrry "awkward" for the PTB. I would not consider it a "done deal" until he walks out the door and in front of a train. :-)
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"They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
#16. To: GreyLmist (#13)
Go to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Here's the website: Punch in his registration # which is 09185-016. It tells you the release date ( actual or projected) which is 11/21/15. If you want to write to him to ask him about the nifty mandate that will set him free after serving 30 years instead of life, here's his address - be my guest: Jonathan Pollard #09185-016 c/o FCI Butner P.O. Box 1000. Butner, NC.
#17. To: Original_Intent, GreyLmist, All (#14)
Pollard has not been kept in solitary confinement all this time. Pollard is in the same home away from home prison as Bernie Madoff. but he was not kept in virtual solitary confinement all of this time for no reason. He knows something which is verrrrry "awkward" for the PTB.
#18. To: scrapper2 (#17)
While he has been in a "Country Club" nevertheless he is never allowed a visit by anyone without observers/censors and he has very little contact with anyone - including his wife.
"“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.” ~ Gautama Siddhartha — The Buddha
Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from evil. ~ Unk (Paraphrase of Clarke's 3rd Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.")
#19. To: scrapper2 (#16)
I don't want to write to him. A projected release date isn't synonymous with an actual release date, so I suspect that a projected release date is conditional, depending on whether parole is approved or denied. How about you find us a record of law that states life sentences mean a maximum of 30 years with automatic parole at that point. I'm thinking some judges haven't ever seen any such thing. If you want to write to him to ask him about the nifty mandate that will set him free after serving 30 years instead of life, here's his address - be my guest:
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"They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
#20. To: GreyLmist, All (#19)
You are right in asserting that the November 2015 release date in nowhere cast in concrete. Pressure will no doubt build on this front on the administration over the next 24 months because once that date passes significant roadblocks come into play that may make any release before 2030 difficult to orchestrate. This recent pro-Pollard article may be of interest. (Emphasis added) Understanding the Pollard Parole Canard By Gil Hoffman – The Jerusalem Post – March 22, 2013 Excerpt from Frontlines: “Obama and Netanyahu: Closer... but still far apart” The one issue in which the differences between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama appears most stark is the fate of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard. Netanyahu would like Obama to commute Pollard’s life sentence to the more than 27 years he has served. This is what Obama had to say about Pollard in an interview with Channel 2 last Thursday: “This is an individual who committed a very serious crime here in the United States. He has been serving his time. There is a justice system that allows for periodic review of his sentence and the potential for him ultimately being released; and the way, you know, I as president function here is to try and make sure that I am following the basic rules of that review. “I have no plans for releasing Jonathan Pollard immediately, but what I am going to be doing is to make sure that he, like every other American who has been sentenced, is accorded the same kinds of review and the same examination of the equities that any other individual would provide. I recognize the emotions involved in this. One of the strengths of the Israeli people is that you think about your people wherever they are. And I recognize that. I am sympathetic. “I think that people have to understand that as the president, my first obligation is to observe the law here in the US and to make sure that it is applied consistently. As you know that there are a lot of individuals in prisons in the United States who have committed crimes who would love to be released early as well. I’ve got to make sure that every individual is treated fairly and equal.” There are three main problems with what Obama said about Pollard, which Netanyahu might have pointed out if he was not doing his best to get along with the president. The first is that Pollard is suffering from failing health and multiple ailments that require urgent medical treatment and proper nutrition, neither of which are available to him in prison. Should Pollard die in prison under Obama’s watch, it would deal a devastating blow to the president’s goal of improving his image among Israelis. “Every day that he survives now is miraculous,” Pollard’s wife, Esther, said. “He is 58 but he is the physical equivalent of a 70- or 80- year-old because he went though seven years of solitary confinement, each of which is the equivalent of multiple years because of the harsh conditions and stress.” The second problem is that the “periodic review” Obama referred to is a parole procedure that, due to key legal reasons, does not apply to Pollard. Assuming he lives until then, Pollard is technically eligible to request parole in November 2015, on the 30th anniversary of his arrest. But parole is not relevant for Pollard because his judge, his prosecutor and the government are on record in his sentencing docket as emphatically denying early release at any date, making it certain he will be refused. Pollard’s lawyers would not be able to effectively contest those recommendations because they have been prevented from seeing the classified portions of his sentencing file. The lawyers received beyond top secret clearance from the government for the purpose of seeing the file and then they were not permitted to see it because a court ruled that they lacked a “need to know”. The lawyers even asked to see the file while being monitored and without taking notes and were told no. They went all the way to the Supreme Court to get the right to view the documents, which have been seen by many people who oppose Pollard’s release. But the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, leaving Pollard no legal redress other than a commuting of his sentence by the president. If parole would be turned down and the case set aside, it would not be revisited again for 10 or 15 years. It would be hard for a president to go against that kind of recommendation and grant clemency to a prisoner whose case was set aside by the parole commission. Due to a plea bargain that Pollard signed to avoid a life sentence, but which was not honored by the prosecution, he did not have a trial. Because of mistakes made by his lawyers without his knowledge, he did not have an appeal. The merits of his case have never been heard in court. The final problem with what Obama said about Pollard is that the parole system was never intended to address an unjust sentence – just good behavior. Parole lets sentences stand but allows for early release. If the government decides to re-arrest a paroled prisoner again for any reason, it may do so and re-imprison him for the full term of his original sentence. Due to the laws at the time of Pollard’s sentencing, his life sentence is for 45 years, which would end in 2030 when he would be 70 years old. There are also conditions for parole, which usually include staying in the US where prisoners can be monitored and subjected to regular review. These would prevent Pollard from moving to Israel and starting a new life. . . .I suspect that a projected release date is conditional, depending on whether parole is approved or denied. How about you find us a record of law that states life sentences mean a maximum of 30 years with automatic parole at that point. I'm thinking some judges haven't ever seen any such thing.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Understanding the Pollard Parole Canard
Know guns, know safety, know liberty. No guns, no safety, no liberty.
#21. To: randge, GreyLmist, Original_Intent, All (#20)
Pollard is subject to the Mandatory Release rule. After serving 2/3 of his sentence - ie. 30 years - unless the DOJ can convince the US Parole Commission that: A. Pollard does not deserve credit for time served ( in fact, Pollard has been a compliant prisoner who has not caused any trouble during his incarceration) and/or B. that he is likely to commit future crimes of espionage (he's never going to be given access to highly classified US gov't documents so the DOJ can't argue the "threat" thingy either). Also Pollard would have suffered no repercussions if he had applied for parole earlier and been denied. That's hasbara B.S. to make Pollard seem like a victim of unfair justice. It also appears that Pollard might be able to request to have his "supervision" after Mandatory Release "adjusted" by the Parole Commission. Furthermore, Pollard renounced his US citizenship in the mid-90's, when Israel gave Pollard Israeli citizenship. FYI, here's a link to the US Parole Commission - there's a good deal of relevant information in the FAQ's. I've only snipped 2 items: www.justice.gov/uspc/faqs.html#q25 snip *If parole is not granted at the initial hearing, will the offender be given another hearing?* By law, if a sentence is less than seven years the offender will be granted another hearing after 18 months from the time of his or her last hearing. If the sentence is seven years or more the next hearing is scheduled 24 months from the time of the last hearing. The first Statutory Interim Hearing may be delayed until the docket preceding eligibility if there is more than 18 or 24 months between the initial hearing and the eligibility date. *If the Commission does not parole the offender earlier, can he or she be paroled later on near the end of the term?* If the sentence is five years or longer, the law provides that the offender will be granted mandatory parole by the Commission when he or she has served two-thirds of the term or terms, unless the Commission makes a finding either that (1) the offender has seriously or frequently violated institution rules and regulations, or (2) there is a reasonable probability that the offender will commit a further crime. If an offender is serving a life term or consecutive terms, a Case Manager can explain the law in relation to parole at the two-thirds point.
#22. To: randge (#20) (Edited)
Thanks for your input on that randge. Yes, the article was interesting and I recalled from it having read years ago about lawyerly manuevers as a more overt means of access to highly classified info. I also recalled while reading that there was someone with the last name of Pollard aboard the USS Liberty when it was attacked by Israel, which not only caused many casualties there but probably also in the Viet Nam War, where it could likely have helped to save lives. I still do suspect shipboard accomplices from the transcriptions about that travesty. Edited for punctuation.
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"They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
#23. To: scrapper2 (#21)
Thanks for your technical reasearch info, scrapper. Will look through it more tomorrow if I can.
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"They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
#24. To: All (#13)
Life in Prison for Shoplifting Under 3 Strikes Law | Brainwash Update Abby Martin remarks on a recent ACLU report highlighting the shockingly high number of people serving life sentences without parole for non-violent crime, calling out state laws that leave judges without options when setting these mandatory sentences. California where some people are imprisoned for life due to the "Three Strikes Law" there
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"They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
#25. To: GreyLmist (#24)
Fyi, Prop. 36 was approved by 69.3% of the voters in the November 2012 election, which made significant changes to the "3 strikes law" in California. George Soros funneled millions of dollars to the pro-Prop 36 campaign...just sayin'... ballotpedia.org/Californi...Strikes%22_Law_%282012%29 snip Proposition 36: Revises the three strikes law to impose life sentence only when the new felony conviction is "serious or violent". Authorizes re-sentencing for offenders currently serving life sentences if their third strike conviction was not serious or violent and if the judge determines that the re-sentence does not pose unreasonable risk to public safety. Continues to impose a life sentence penalty if the third strike conviction was for "certain non-serious, non-violent sex or drug offenses or involved firearm possession". Maintains the life sentence penalty for felons with "non-serious, non-violent third strike if prior convictions were for rape, murder, or child molestation." Here's an overview of the pro's and con's of the 3 strikes law - it wasn't as black and white as the Abby lady of your video clip represents - unfortunately CA.'s original law did not stipulate 3 FELONY convictions like other states did and then what made the law go further south was the fact that the CA. Supreme Court ruled that judges and prosecutors could have DISCRETION on when to apply the 3 strikes law, which allowed uneven subjective application of the law. legal-dictionary.thefreed...ry.com/Three+Strikes+Laws I would agree that regarding Pollard and espionage - a life sentence should mean life in prison. Frankly I wish the sentence for espionage was capital punishment as it is for treason.
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