Friday, October 01, 2004
this is a shocker!
U.S. PILOTS 'GUINEA PIGS,' LAWYER SAYS The American pilots who mistakenly killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were drugged-up "guinea pigs" at the time of the bombing, one of their defence lawyers said yesterday. "This was an Air Force science project using AF pilots as guinea pigs," Charles Gittins, lawyer for Major Harry Schmidt, said in an e-mail interview with The Globe and Mail yesterday. This fall, a U.S. military investigation criticized the force's use of amphetamines, but found that the drugs used by Major Schmidt and Major Bill Umbach were simply "not a factor" in the pilots' fateful decision to drop a 225-kilogram, laser-guided bomb on Canadian infantry soldiers. Eight were wounded and four were killed by the pilots, who mistook the ground troops for enemy fighters.
click on the link above to read the rest of the story.
Saturday, September 25, 2004
CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYERS, SALT LAKE CITY. UT
CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER IN UTAH. CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYERS, SALT LAKE CITY. UT W. Stevens, Attorney at Law 2825 E. Cottonwood Parkway - Suite 500 Salt Lake City, UT 84121 Gregory W. Stevens Phone: 801.W. Stevens, Attorney at Law 2825 E. Cottonwood Parkway - Suite 500 Salt Lake City, UT 84121 Gregory W. Stevens Phone: 801
# posted by BILLY THE KIDD @ 5:10 PM 0 comments
PROVIDING SKILLED AND EFFECTIVE LEGAL REPRESENTATION
Jeralyn E. Merritt Home Firm Overview Attorney Profile Email Us Directions Professional Activities Legal Links Achievements Seminars News Clips Committed to Defending Constitutional Rights 950 17th Street, Suite 1700Denver, Colorado 80202 Telephone: 303-837-1837 Fax: 303-832-7822 URL: http://www.crimelynx.com www.lawyers.com/merritt Since 1974, nationally recognized criminal defense attorney Jeralyn Merritt has provided highly skilled and effective legal representation to persons accused of serious drug and white collar crimes. As a frequent lecturer at continuing legal education seminars across the country, and a television legal analyst since 1996 commenting on high profile criminal cases, she is always on the cutting edge of innovative trial strategies and defenses. This web site is designed for general information only. The information presented at this site should not be construed to be formal legal advice nor the formation of a lawyer/client relationship. Link: http://www.lawyers.com/merritt/
# posted by BILLY THE KIDD @ 10:22 AM 0 comments
See Utah's Opinions The Center's study of criminal appeals from 1970 to the present revealed 115 Utah cases in which defendants alleged prosecutorial error or misconduct. In 13, judges ruled a prosecutor's conduct prejudiced the defendant and reversed or remanded the conviction, sentence or indictment. In two, a dissenting judge or judges thought a prosecutor's conduct prejudiced the defendant. # posted by BILLY THE KIDD @ Link: See Utah's Opinions
PUBLIC DEFENDER DUDE
PUBLIC DEFENDER VIEW'S http://www.publicdefenderdude.blogspot.com/ The rantings of a Public Defender constantly fighting against society's pervasive Police Industrial Complex. Enjoy the unique perspective of one who's life's work is to fight the system through the system. Link: http://www.publicdefenderdude.blogspot.com/
# posted by BILLY THE KIDD @ 10:24 AM 0 comments
Friday, September 24, 2004
This will be a work in progress..more stories will be added.
“ DRUG CHARGES DROPPED". TRUE! I was not a resident or nor had resided at the house for several months. (Where a large amount of methamphetamine was found). In fact, I did not reside at either place where the illegal drugs and paraphernalia were recovered. But, this paper did run on the front cover... Saying that it was mine. The dope was not mine, nor did not live there for several months. So therefore, all of the charges of drugs and pharapherilia and intent to distribute all have to BEEN DISMISSED. Of course that was not the end...the powers that be are very intent on sending me away... so...levied other charges against me. To protect the innocent. I will not be naming any names. Only wish to state that there were bogus charges. The JURY saw though state's case. And dismissed all charges against me. I am trying to move on with my life and put the mistakes in the past. I know I have allotted of people out there ...that would like to see me go back to prison. . And will do anything it takes to achieve their goals. I would just like to be left alone and be able to move on in life! Like i said before...I have made mistakes and I have paid for them. That is all in the past and I intend to have a successful future.
NOT GULITY-NOT GUILTY
NOT GUILTY-NOT GULITY NOT GUILTY NOT GUILTY NOT GUILTY Saturday, September 11, 2004 A JURY WAS CONVENED TO HEAR THE CHARGES, THAT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM HAD FILE AGAINST ME. I WOULD NOT ACCEPT THEIR GENEROUS OFFER OF A PLEA BARGAIN. SIMPLY… BECAUSE, I WAS NOT GUILTY HAVE SAID CHARGES! So, a Jury was called to hear my case. If the remark made by the judge to the jury is correct. This trial cost the taxpayers of Uintah County, $100, 000.00. AFTER TWO DAYS, THE CASE WAS GIVEN TO THE JURY. When they came back in and were asked to present their verdict. It was NOT guilty. I wish to thank the Jury for the close attention they paid to the evidence and saw through that the real motives for putting me on trial which I feel was’ nothing SHORT of a vindictive effort' by the Detective and the AP&P & The presiding JUDGE and the D.A. to railroad me into serving a long prison term. In this case unwarranted prison term. For the several months have sat in prison on 18 allegations by my parole officer. ((Allegation - statements affirming or denying certain matters of fact that you are prepared to prove) my name has been on the radio and the newspaper with this false allegation. (I am demanding the papers and radio print a retraction). You know the Newspaper and Radio always report everything. BUT, when a person is innocent, they do nothing to correct the false information. That they have reported. They should correct the injustice. So, I am requesting that they do print a retraction. (I have paid my debt to society. I am trying to get over my problems. It is difficult when they proceed to use tactics that are set up to entice you to break the law. Unlike others, I refused to play that game. So, because they know that I am pursuing their actions. With legal action of my own. They are 'HELL BENT ON TAKING ME DOWN-ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!') It is a far different story, when I am guilty. I take the charges and do the time! But when they place false charges against me. Then I will stand up and fight! So, The Justice system here is furious with me. Because, I called in the ACLU. Why, because I had in independent drug screen done while going through Drug court. There's showed that I was dirty. (I was on an antibiotic at the time) The independent showed that I was not DIRTY! They refused to accept the test therefore violated my CIVIL RIGHTS! (I felt that, the drug court was violating a lot of people rights). So, I have been on this journey with them of WANTING TO PUT ME AWAY! So that I cannot take legal action against them! The last ordeal began, One day, they came in disguise, Dark sunglasses and hats pulled down over then heads, an undercover car...got out with guns. I did not recognize them and I saw the gun and began to run. Then AP&P OFFICER CALLED and identified himself and I stopped. They found NO drug on me or anything else! But that is not what they reported to the newspaper and radio stations and court and Board of pardons. They, however still reported that they had found meth on me. The local news put it out there as the truth. (THE METH THEY FOUND AT ANOTHER LOCATION!) I used to live there several months past. I was not residing there at the time of my arrest! But, they charged me anyway! SO, I GOT THE DUBIOUS HONOR OF SHARING THE FRONT OF THE NEWSPAPER WITH SANTA CLAUS!) The radio touted the false charges on the news report for two days. I was given 18 Allegations (allegation - statements affirming or denying certain matters of fact that you are prepared to prove) and sent back to ALL OF THE allegations was DROPPED. When I had my hearing with the Board of Pardons, All of the! (Allegation were unproven so therefore dropped) I was given a parole date! THEN, AP&P OFFIECER PLACED New charges against me. (So here we go again) Therefore I lost my release date. I sat prison for months on allegations that where dropped. Then on new charges that AP&P conjured up! I was offered a couple of plea bargains by the D.A.s office. I refused them. So I was brought to trial and the jury found me NOT GUILTY! Thanks to the Jury for seeing the truth. I still have the resisting arrest charge to face. I will call for another jury trial. More expense to the County taxpayers. Hopefully I will get another keen and attentive jury that will see though the hoax of charges. That is one reason that I am starting this blog page. It is for people like me who have stories to tell about the judicial system in the Uintah Basin area. OR THE U.S.A. Just about any type of help that you will need in Utah will be posted on this site. I will be adding more as times go bye. I will encourage you to tell your stories, THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY. Experiences with the JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IN THE UINTAH BASIN AND THE USA. I have had good experiences with many law enforcement people that have been fair and treated me with respect and I respect them for it. I am after all a human being. We all our human beings. Some of us have problems And we have paid our dues to society. It is when certain individuals (Who I feel ..........have a vindictive agenda to achieve) set their sights on putting me away. They use their power of their position to put me away, even if I am 'innocent of the charges'. In researching sites to be placed on this blog I have discovered information 'that is mind-boggling'. The amount of people being sent to prison because of drug habits is SHOCKING! In the United States of America, 876 people out of 100.000 are sent to prison drug Related offfense. In Canada it is 116 out of 100,000; Murders in the U.S. will do three years while a person who receives a Drug charges can do 10 times of the amount of time. Today if nicotine and alcohol was just being introduced into our society, they would be deemed a drug, therefore illegal. Our Government makes big money from tax revenues that it has remained legal. It is time too promote 'Drug law change! ' It is time to find a way to stop filling up our prisons with our loved ones! We need to start now. Why, we all have children and grandchildren coming up into a world The government makes & thrives off the profit of sending people to prison because of there drug habits. They are put in prison with hard-core killers and such. What does that teach them? Addiction is a disease! Then, has to be a better way of dealing with the afflicted. The statistics out there shows that the PRESENT LAW ENFORCEMENT DRUG POLICES ARE NOT WORKING! It is only destroying lives and tearing families apart! New ways of dealing with addicts need to be created. Laws need to be changed and programs that will work be established. I encourage you all tell yours stories! Get involved with the organizations to help change the laws . That are filling up prison and tearing families apart and murdering our young people. So JOIN the groups that are working to change the laws. Links listed on this page will help you find Lawyers The ACLU information & free advice and fee help. These links Will provide legal, education, and drug rehab sites, for civil or criminal problems. This site will not only educate you. This site will help you locate information for all types of problems in Utah Don’t forget to tell your story here! Make your comments! This is your site... as will as mine we need to start turning failure into success stories. Good luck!
BACK IN JUNE OF 2002..My civil Rights were Violated and I reported it to the ACLU..much displeasure of the local justice system.THE ACLU SENT THE FOLLOWING LETTERS WERE SENT TO DRUG COURT OFFICIALS. 06-10-02 due process concerns in our drug courts June 10, 2002 Governor Michael Leavitt Utah State Capitol Salt Lake City, UT 84114 drug testing facility used by the Eighth District Drug Court in Uintah County. The complaints make several allegations, including cross contamination of specimen at the Uintah County Jail drug testing laboratory, refusal of the drug court to allow participants to pay for their own tests at independent laboratories, refusal to consider participants prescription medications and their effects on drug tests, and the refusal of the drug court to allow participants to challenge contested drug test results. If these allegations are true, the problems listed above are grave violations of the drug court participants Due Process rights. Although the ACLU of Utah adamantly supports the drug court program, these potentially devastating violations of personal liberty must be addressed and corrected immediately. We urge you to take a hard look at this problem and delegate proper funding to the program in order to correct the inadequacies of the drug testing facilities used by the smaller drug courts in Utah. It was recently reported that the drug court program was allocated $500,000 in federal funding (See attached article). The ACLU of Utah requests that the majority of this funding go to correcting these systemic problems. If you have any questions about the ACLU of Utah’s concerns please contact my office. Sincerely, Janelle P. Eurick Staff Attorney _________________________ June 10, 2002 Mark Thomas Administrator Eighth District Drug Court 152 E. 100 N. Vernal, Utah 84078 RE: Governmental Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) Dear Mr. Thomas, The ACLU of Utah has been informed of several questionable situations regarding the accuracy of drug tests performed at the Uintah County Jail, pursuant to drug court rules and procedures that potentially raise serious constitutional violations of due process for those tested. In order to understand more about the complaints we have received naming the Eight District Drug Court and pursuant to the Utah Governmental Records Access and Management Act, Utah Code Ann. §§ 63-2-101 et seq., the ACLU of Utah requests the production of any procedures and or policies in existence prior to or on the date of this request regarding the administrative procedures required for drug testing of participants in the Eight District Drug Court, including, but not limited to: The rules and guidelines for participants in the Eight District Drug Court Program (“Drug Court”), including applicable evidentiary and procedural rules The rules and procedures for drug testing of participants in the Drug Court The rules and procedures for retesting challenged drug test results The rules and procedures allowing drug court participants to pay for their own drug tests in the case of a challenged drug test result The rules and procedures for introducing contradicting drug tests into evidence The names of facilities contracted with to conduct drug testing for the Drug Court The rules and procedures followed for requesting that a drug test be performed by a different facility than the one who conducted the original testing The rules and procedures regarding storage and transportation of participants drug test specimen Any other documents, rules or procedures regarding the drug testing of participants in the Drug Court program. If you have any questions about this request, please contact me. Please bill my office for any reasonable copying charge associated with providing the above information and documents. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Sincerely, Janelle Eurick Staff Attorney ACLU of Utah Cc. Governor Michael Leavitt _________________________ June 10, 2002 Corporal Denile Gale Uintah County Jail 152 E. 100 N. Vernal, Utah 84078 Joann Stringham Uintah County Attorney 152 E. 100 N. Vernal, Utah 84078 RE: Governmental Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) Dear Ms. Stringham and Mr. Gale, The ACLU of Utah has been informed of several questionable situations regarding the accuracy of drug tests performed at your facility, potentially raising serious constitutional violations of due process for those tested. In order to understand more about the complaints we have received naming your facility and pursuant to the Utah Governmental Records Access and Management Act, Utah Code Ann. §§ 63-2-101 et seq., the ACLU of Utah requests the production of any procedures and or policies in existence prior to or on the date of this request regarding the collection, handling, storage and methods of testing specimen in your laboratory, including, but not limited to: Procedures used for handling and processing specimen collected for drug testing Procedures for introducing control samples Chain of custody procedures for the tested specimen, including procedures used to prevent cross contamination of specimen Storage procedures for specimen including policies on retaining specimen for future testing in the case of a false positive/ challenged test result Procedures for re-testing a specimen when the result is contested Contract or other documents authorizing your laboratory to conduct testing for the Eighth District Drug Court Any documents from the Eighth District Drug Court to your office mandating rules, policies, or procedures to be followed while testing drug court participants Names and locations of any other laboratories you submit tests to on a contractual basis Procedures for sending contested test results to another facility for testing If you have any questions about this request, please contact me. Please bill my office for any reasonable copying charge associated with providing the above information and documents. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Sincerely, Janelle Eurick Staff Attorney ACLU of Utah Cc. Governor Michael Leavitt in the courts in the legislature in the news publicationshome rights violated? about the aclu support the aclu join the aclu Link: http://www.acluutah.org/ltr061002.htm
HOW TO REPORT A CIVIL LIBERTIES BY A JUSTICE EMPLOYEE Office for Civil Rights The policy and mission of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Office of Justice Programs (OJP) is to ensure that recipients of financial assistance from OJP, its component organizations, or Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) are not engaged in prohibited discrimination. The primary objective in accomplishing this mission is to secure prompt and full compliance with all civil rights laws and regulations so that needed Federal assistance may commence or continue note:Individuals or groups who are aggrieved by the funded agency -- that is, if they claim to have been denied the benefits of, excluded from participation in, subjected to discrimination under, or denied employment in connection with any program or activity -- on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, religion or age -- can file a complaint with OCR. OCR is required by law to investigate complaints of discrimination filed against recipients of financial assistance from OJP, its component organizations, or COPS. OCR's goal, both in conducting compliance reviews and in processing complaints is to reach voluntary compliance with the recipient agency so that funding may commence or continue. However, when an agency is recalcitrant or refuses to comply, OJP is obligated to make a determination of "noncompliance" that may result in suspension or termination of OJP or COPS funding. http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,405010161,00.html Utah getting $500,000 to support drug courts Utah will receive $500,000 from a $34.19 million grant that will support drug courts throughout the nation, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Thursday. The award from the Department of Justice will help 31 states and two U.S. territories plan, establish or improve drug courts. Through successful completion of the program, nonviolent drug offenders are able to have their charges dismissed or sentences reduced. Participants meet regularly with judges, who closely monitor offenders' treatment and participation in educational, vocational or community service activities. Offenders must submit to routine drug tests. The courts have increased 50-fold in the United States since 1995. Utah has 14. Link: ! Link: REPORT A CIVIL LIBERTIES VIOLATIONS BY A JUSTICE EMPLOYEE HOW TO REPORT A CIVIL LIBERTIES BY
Drug courts fundamentally uprincipled.
In a law review article, Colorado Judge Morris B. Hoffman writes, "By existing simply to appease two so diametric and irreconcilable sets of principles, drug courts are fundamentally unprincipled. By simultaneously treating drug use as a crime and as a disease, without coming to grips with the inherent contradictions of those two approaches, drug courts are not satisfying either the legitimate and compassionate interests of the treatment community or the legitimate and rational interests of the law enforcement community. They are, instead, simply enabling our continued national schizophrenia about drugs." Link: http://www.drugwarfacts.org/drugcour.htm
Thursday, September 23, 2004
EXCELENT SITE FOR PARENTS WHO WANT TO LEARN ABOUT DRUGS.
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
REALTORS EDUCATED ABOUT METHAMPHETAMINE
FLEX YOUR RIGHTS.
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
OUT OF THE SHADOWS
Dear Judge King:
I write you from a different corner of the world of law than the one you oversee for the District of Columbia: the community of advocates striving to change laws and policies. For the past ten years, I have worked as founder and executive director of StopTheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet), an organization which calls for an end to prohibition and the so-called "war on drugs."
It is with sadness for our country, but hope for its future, that I write to inform you that conscience does not permit me to appear for jury service as your court has directed.
US drug policy is in a state of moral and humanitarian crisis, shaming us before history: Half a million nonviolent drug offenders clog our prisons and jails. Mandatory minimum sentences and inflexible sentencing guidelines condemn numerous low-level offenders to years or decades behind bars, often based solely on the word of compensated, confidential informants. Profiling and other racial or economic disparities assault the dignity and safety of our poor and minorities and deny them equal justice. Overall, criminalization has become a reflexive, default reaction to social problems, as opposed to its more limited, proper role as a last resort after other methods have failed. As a result, more than two million people are imprisoned in the United States, the highest incarceration rate of any nation.
The external consequences of the drug laws wreak a devastating toll on large segments of our society and on other countries: Prohibition creates a lucrative black market that soaks our inner cities in violence and disorder, and lures young people into lives of crime. Laws criminalizing syringe possession, and the overall milieu of underground drug use and sales, encourage needle sharing and increase the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C. Our drug war in the Andes fuels a continuing civil war in Colombia, with prohibition-generated illicit drug profits enabling its escalation. Thousands of Americans die from drug overdoses or poisonings by adulterants every year, most of their deaths preventable through the quality-controlled market that would exist if drugs were legal. Physicians' justifiable fear of running afoul of law enforcers causes large numbers of Americans to go un- or under-treated for intractable chronic pain. And frustration over the failure of the drug war, together with the lack of dialogue on prohibition, distorts the policymaking process, leading to ever more intrusive governmental interventions and ever greater dilution of the core American values of freedom, privacy and fairness.
Drug policies have significantly driven a deep corrosion of the ethics and principles underlying our system of justice: Police officers routinely violate constitutional rights to make drug busts, often committing perjury to secure convictions; or resort to trickery and manipulation to cause individuals to give up their rights, enabled by an intricate web of legalistic court rulings stretching the letter of the law while betraying its spirit. Manipulation of evidence and process is standard procedure. Many prosecutors, though thankfully not all, treat their position as a stepping stone to elected office, subjugating their oaths to seek justice to a political calculus based instead on individual career advancement. Corruption and misconduct among enforcers and within agencies is widespread. And all these problems, while not officially sanctioned, are in practice largely tolerated: criminal prosecution for police abuse is the exception, and disbarment for prosecutorial misconduct is almost unheard of. Meanwhile, false or unfair convictions occur with unacknowledged frequency, with persons thus victimized often spending years in prison while seeking exoneration.
Jurors in the United States cannot therefore confidently rely on the information we are provided for deciding criminal cases. We cannot know if we have been told the whole truth of a case – as in the trials of Ed Rosenthal and Bryan Epis, whom California jurors convicted without knowing they were medical marijuana providers. We cannot trust the testimony of witnesses for the state to be truthful and balanced; for example, Andrew Chambers, a "super-snitch" used by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for numerous prosecutions, even after a court found him to be a repeat perjurer. We are not permitted knowledge of the possible consequences a defendant may face if we vote to convict – and in a society that hands out decades-long punishments as a routine matter, and which fails to provide adequate safety or medical care to our incarcerated, we cannot have faith that a judge will be able, even if willing, to pronounce a sentence that is just. We are instructed to decide verdicts based solely on facts, showing no consideration to larger moral principles, with those daring to inform potential jurors of their power to do otherwise themselves subjected to criminalization to an increasing degree. And we subsidize the injustices by providing our time for mere travel cost as members of the jury pool, and for less than a living wage while serving as jurors on cases.
We in the District of Columbia have attempted multiple times to effect modest changes to our drug policy, only to have our voices rebuffed or silenced. A voter initiative to permit medical use of marijuana, Measure 63, was struck from our ballot by Congress; and an initiative to divert a limited class of offenders from jail into treatment, Measure 62, which the electorate of the District approved overwhelmingly, was blocked from being implemented by a court, in a proceeding initiated at the behest of our own Mayor. Despite a significant degree of reform sentiment among District residents, our criminal justice policies largely parallel the unceasing arrest and incarceration program of the nation as a whole. Indeed, our justice system is heavily influenced by a Congress that makes use of our taxes but affords us no voting representation within its ranks, and by a federal enforcement bureaucracy which this Congress funds and to which it has granted substantial authority over our local criminal justice matters.
None of the foregoing is intended to reflect any condemnation or disrespect of your office or profession – and no such sentiment is harbored toward the son of Rufus King II, a great crusader for justice and a member of my organization. I take heart from your tenure as well as from the efforts of the majority of individuals working in the criminal justice system who strive with integrity to serve the public weal. But judges and jurors alike are in the grip of larger political and social forces; and the moral obligations of the private citizen vs. the official duties of the appointed public servant are not always one and the same.
I do not lightly exclude myself from jury service, which in a just society I would consider a privilege and honor. But while the past ten years have seen some encouraging developments in drug policy reform, the fundamental punitive, prohibitionist focus of the government's anti-drug program remains unchanged, as does the extremity of its execution and the corrupting toll it takes on the administration of justice as a whole. On that latter concern, I also do not dismiss the need for, or the validity of, legitimate laws protecting safety and property, even in the face of injustice in their administration; the District has a defensible need for jurors to serve on such cases, and I do not call for that process to cease or wait.
But the untrustworthiness of the system in its overview, a result to a significant degree of the drug war, presents potential jurors with a moral dilemma whose resolution lies beyond their power: to serve, at least on cases involving laws that are just in and of themselves, but risking committing wrong by enabling the system to commit an injustice that they cannot reliably identify in advance (a significant possibility for any juror in the current state of affairs), and in any case still facilitating injustice indirectly by enlarging the total size of the available juror pool; or to commit a different wrong by refusing to serve even on cases involving such laws (the system's overall unreliability being a valid justification for such refusal in and of itself), but continuing to receive the benefits of the protection which those laws provide.
It may be that the lesser wrong, and the greater good, lie in refusing to serve a corrupted system entirely, in hopes of, through such a choice, provoking needed discussion and increasing the public and political will for reform. As the great American philosopher and abolitionist, Henry David Thoreau, expounded in his famous essay Civil Disobedience, "It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of... even the most enormous wrong... but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he give it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support."
My service as a juror in the District of Columbia would directly or indirectly support injustice, and would help to fuel the illusion that drug prohibition serves the health and safety of the public; when in reality only some form of legalization can adequately address the combined harms of drugs and drug prohibition, which in the currently one-dimensional public dialogue are commonly attributed only to drugs; and when in reality only some form of legalization can satisfy the fundamental obligation of society to respect individual freedom while requiring individual responsibility.
Lastly, should I report to your court as a potential juror, it is an all but foregone conclusion that my profession, which was asked of me on the juror registration form, would cause me not to be selected for a jury, as has happened in the past. Those of us who place greater importance on conscience and individual justice than on the enactments of legislatures, and who do so outspokenly, are effectively disenfranchised from jury service for this reason. For me to report as a potential juror, then, would amount to participation in a game, devaluing both the system you administer and the principles to which I ascribe.
For all these reasons, I have determined that unjust drug laws, and the corrosion wrought by the drug war on the criminal justice system as a whole, compel me to conscientiously refuse jury service. I take this action with knowledge and acceptance of the possible consequences, and request no special consideration.
Respectfully,
David Borden, Executive Director, DRCNet/StopTheDrugWar.org, and citizen of the District of Columbia
Cc: Duane B. Delaney, Clerk of the Court
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Monday, September 20, 2004
THIS WEEKS CORRUPT COPS STORY
