“If the Court of Appeals finds that the Congressmen are right and the statute was misapplied it will overturn/vacate the convictions and that will effectively take care of other prosecutors attempting to exploit that statute in a similar fashion.”
It will do no such thing. The law as it is written clearly dos not exclude LEO’s if in the performance of their duties they committ a felony. Judges as a rule, and there are exceptione when it comes to left wingers, do not try read into laws additions or conclusions they do not contain.
The judges in the appeal stated the Justice Dept. might have “overreached”, they didn’t say the law in question did not apply to LEO’s and as a matter of fact, they do. We all know there are “dirty cops” out there and they want this law to apply if they abuse their priviliges under the color of authority.
R&C were convicted of assault which brings this law into play.
There are conservative/right-leaning judges do subscribe to the doctrine of original intent. This is one case that absolutely cries out for it. Again, Sutton created the worst sort of precedent for BP agents and other members of the LE community. This sort of precedent completely undermines LE to go after illegal immigrants and/or criminals. This was precisely why the Congressmen issued their brief with the court. This kind of precedent must not be allowed to stand.
Sutton fully understood that it was never ever the intent of Congress that this statute be applied to LEO's operating in the line of duty. Congress automatically assumed that any prosecutor would have enough wisdom and common sense to understand this critical truth. Tragically Sutton lacked both. He fully understood what the legislators were saying but went ahead and exploited the statute anyway in Federal Court. Attempting to justify his actions by saying that Congress never explicitly excluded LEO's from the legislation is the most chicken sh*t excuse imaginable.
Yes, there are dirty cops out there committing real crimes. But there are separate statutes dealing specifically with those kinds of matters.