Posted on 03/15/2006 2:32:48 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
The Clinton-appointed federal judge who tossed out half the government's death penalty case against convicted 9/11 "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui on Tuesday has a history of liberal rulings and was once named by Sen. Bob Dole to the "Clinton Hall of Shame."
Even before Judge Leonie Brinkema decimated the government's case by ruling that evidence from key witnesses had been tainted by prosecutorial misconduct, veteran terrorism prosecutor Andrew McCarthy warned Brinkema not to overreact.
Writing about the furor over the prosecution's blunder on NationalReviewOnline Monday, McCarthy said: "It is a tempest in a teapot that is obviously being blown out of proportion — as frequently happens with people philosophically opposed to the death penalty, who often portray every run-of-the-mill error in death-penalty proceedings as if it were Armageddon."
McCarthy added that he wasn't sure that the liberal justice indeed held those views, but noted, "This is only a big problem if Judge Brinkema, for whatever reason, decides to turn it into one."
That's exactly what the Clinton appointee did with her ruling the next day - a move that fits the pattern of liberal decisions that prompted Sen. Dole to name Brinkema ten years ago to what he called the "Clinton Hall of Shame."
Dole cited a 1995 case in which Brinkema gave a mere 21 month sentence to a convicted murderer, instead of the seven-to nine-year term called for by federal guidelines.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit later overturned her ruling.
Dole isn't alone in blasting Brinkema for her judicial activism. "It's my impression that she is highly ideological," complained Delaware State Representative Richard Black three years later.
According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Black was outraged by a 1998 Brinkema decision, that barred the Loudoun County, Va., public library from using filters to prevent adults from viewing sexually explicit material on the Internet.
Noted the Press: "That decision, and another in which Brinkema struck down as unconstitutional a law that prohibits Virginia employees from using government resources to access sexually explicit Web sites, earned her a mocking 'court jester' award for judicial activism from the conservative Family Research Council."
Yeah, Bob Dole. There'd have been no Clinton 2nd term if you'd had the decency not to pull rank and run a suicide campaign in '96.
Dole felt he soooo deserved the nomination and he took us all down the drain with him. I actuall groaned out loud when I heard he had the nomination.
I could never understand why the GOP endorsed Dole in '96. It gave Slick Willy a second term on a silver platter!
I never understood her original court order. You always coach the witnesses before they testify.
The judge may be inadvertantly doing some good by exposing how bad the judicial system is for trying these guys.
And in most trials, previous testimony is known, as it is usually public.
Regardless of whether her order was unusual, the fact is that it was her order. The TSA lawyer should have known better.
We'd all be screaming bloody murder if it was a defense lawyer who coached the witnesses in violation of the judge's orders. We'd all be demanding that the "tainted" testimony be thrown out. Hell, I'd be at the front of the line.
It was his turn, dammit.
My friends who worked in the GOP used to say Clinton was a great politician. I think they were in denial. Clinton was ripe to get beat, but the party rammed through a doddering old fool who could only appeal to GOP fanatics. Only reason I voted for him was Kemp.
Every step of the Monica thing, I'd say "Thank you, Bob Dole!"
The problems in that trial are due to the inept prosecution, not the judge.
I don't buy it. A judge is not god. Forcing the government to call witnesses it has not talked to is absurd. It would be just as absurd if she had done this to the defense.
The "Kemp" bit I thought was a great idea, but "Dole"....
I haven't followed this, but I've never thought the death penalty in espionage cases (this sort of is one)was practical. You don't know what secrets this guy might be holding.
I agree that a judge isn't God. Judges certainly make mistakes.
However, if the prosecution really had a problem with her order, they should have made a motion to change her ruling. If the judge wouldn't change her order, they could have moved for a mistrial on the grounds that they were not allowed to properly prepare. They could have taken it to the press -- don't you think talk radio would've loved that angle? They did none of those things. Instead, the prosecution chose to try for forgiveness rather than permission, and they got caught. Now they're paying for it.
Did you get physically ill during the Kemp / Gore debate? How could a guy won won pro football titles choke like that?
I must say I don't remember it. Isn't the human mind a wonderful thing?
Nobody cares what this senile old tax collector for the welfare state has to say.
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