Posted on 03/23/2006 4:11:58 PM PST by Graybeard58
The way plumbing contractor Adell Hardiman sees it, his 2001 felony conviction for double-voting shouldn't keep him from getting a Jackson County concealed-carry permit.
But the Missouri concealed-carry law bars felons, and the sheriff's office has turned down his application. He's going to court this afternoon to try to win the permit.
"I have a business, for one thing," Hardiman, 53, told me. "The other part of it is, you've got so many people who are just totally crazy anymore. And I like to hunt."
Hardiman was placed on probation after voting twice in four elections in Blue Springs and Kansas City. He said he owned homes in both cities, registered under the same name and Social Security number. He claimed he didn't know it was wrong to vote in both places.
In 2004, just as Hardiman was getting off probation, he read in The Star that the man who prosecuted him, assistant county prosecutor Phil LeVota, himself had voted in two elections in Independence in 2004 after moving to Lee's Summit in 2003.
Intentionally voting where you don't live is a class-one election felony in Missouri. LeVota, now chairman of the Jackon County Democratic Party, was not charged. Unlike Hardiman, LeVota cast only one ballot in each election.
"Does the sword have a double-edge?" Hardiman asked me at the time. "Does justice cut both ways? He's an attorney, which I'm not, of course, but if he screws up and does something wrong, does he get the same thing, just like I got?"
Votes raise question of fraud (2004 LeVota story) Adell Hardiman charged in 2001 Adell Hardiman, Minority Contractors Award, 1992
Update: No luck for Adell. 1) Vote-related felony convictions in Missouri are never expunged. 2) There's no wiggle room in Missouri laws barring felons from owning guns, as to type of felony.
Judge Margeret Sauer and sheriff's office attorney Stacey L. Mortimer were both sympathetic. But the law was clear.
"This is a good example of what I used to tell my students when I was teacher," the judge told him. "Things you do in your life can have consequences forever."
We walked over to the river with him carrying all the guns because he, being a cop, could legally do so.
Illinois has no concealed carry law. Only cops can do it.
When we came back home he handed me my two guns while we were standing and talking in my yard. I stuffed the 32 in my leather coat pocket and held the 357.
We talked a while then I went in the house and he went home. I put away the 357 and forgot all about the little 32 in my coat pocket.
The next morning my wife had to go into work at 3:00 am and we went out for breakfast first. A waitress spotted the gun in my pocket when I sat down and called the cops.
I was arrested, jailed, tried and convicted of carrying a gun, a felony in Illinois. I spent 36 hours in the shit hole of a county jail and then bailed out.
I got 18 months probation a $1,000 fine, $1500 probation costs, $2500 for a lawyer and at the age of 57 had a felony conviction on my record (first offense ever, of any kind)
The prosocuter would not lower it to a misdemeanor, I had my lawyer ask him if I would lose my right to vote. My own lawyer didn't know and neither did the prosocuter, they had to ask the judge.
Convicted felons may vote in Illinois after they have served their sentence.
Some people think that no convicted felon should ever be allowed to vote again and that's their privilege to have that opinion. A poster on a thread a couple of years ago suggested that all felons be branded with the letter "F" on their foreheads.
Should Illinois ever get a concealed carry law, I won't be allowed to have one because of that felony conviction.
I didn't commit some horrendous crime, I broke a law that shouldn't even be a law but I didn't even intentionally do that.
I'd like to see opinions on the substance of the article and opinions on my case as well.
You made an honest mistake from the sounds of it...This guy intentionally cancelled out the vote of a fellow American citizen...big difference.
I don't know how these laws have been found to pass constitutional muster.
In my opinion, if a felon is allowed to vote, he should be allowed to own guns. If the voting rights are restored to felons, the rest of their rights under the bill of rights should also be restored.
I think that should be the response to all the democrat proposals to restore voting rights to convicted felons: In any state where convicted felons are allowed to vote, their rights to own and carry firearms should also be reinstated.
I don't know much about this, and this may just be my youth talking, but what does it take to get a pardon from the governor or something in a case like yours?
My lawyer says zero. This is Illinois, a state totally controlled by democrats and rinos.
A person who is convicted of writing a bad check should not lose their rights for life. Thats ridiculous.
Felons should not be allowed to own a gun or vote unless they have had their civil rights restored. In your case, I'm certain the circumstances of your crime would be taken into account.
This may sound crazy, but President Bush seems to have a good track record of pardoning good and decent "little people".
The guy in the article got what he deserved. You didn't.
get outta dodge...
i feel for you, but i'm in n.j., about the same thing, looking to get out myself...
Pass enough laws, and everybody becomes a potential criminal. Too bad the enforcers can selectively enforce laws, but we can't selectively choose which laws to abide by.
Sorry you got burned for exercising your Constitutional right to bear arms. You don't need anyone's permission to do so, in my opinion.
You don't need a permit to go to church. You don't need a permit to exercise freedom of speech. Why should exercising the Second Amendment be any different?
I really feel for you. Stories like this make me very angry.
You can't carry, but women can kill their unborn child because it is "their right".
Homos can butt screw each other because it is "their right".
Nowhere in the Constituion are these rights mentioned, but they have them anyway.
To be denied a real right, like you were, is a sin and a shame.
To be fined and made a criminal because you exercised a right is a sin and a shame.
What is this country coming to?
I gotta wonder about this guy - in one sentence he talks about "crazy people" and in the next sentence says he likes to hunt. I don't think hunting crazy people is legal in my state, well, except for those of us who hunt crazy broads and then marry 'em, but shootin' 'ems a no-no, I think.
I remember my Dad telling me once of prisoner being released from prison in Nebraska who researched and found an old law that required he be given a firearm. Similiar to the 50.00 they give nowdays. Anyhow the state had to do it as the story goes.
As for the guy in the posted article I think it may have been an honest mistake. I am sure the prosecuter will say the same thing as he did it himself.
Personally I would like to see the prosecuter fry as the double standard is sickening.
The county prosecutor who would not plea bargain my case down to a misdemeanor (He had no reason to, I was guilty as charged) is the Republican candidate for Attorney General of Illinois. He's tough on crime you know.
Never the less I will vote for him in the general election because I will not vote for a democrat.
I've actually pondered this situation several times. I don't think it should be automatic, but there should be some kind of apparatus in place, far short of a pardon, that would restore all rights to a convicted felon that has served his or her sentence and moved on in their life.
Some kind of review board under a states atty general or something like that.
The law has changed since then. Cops may carry in any state now.
Signed into law by "W" It was also endorsed by Al Gore in the campaign of 2000.
Work to have the law overturned or nullified. Convictions for felony offenses that are subsequently reclassified as misdemeanors or removed as an offense entirely can be expunged or removed per ex post facto (and Prohibition).
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