Posted on 04/15/2008 1:01:54 PM PDT by secretagent
snip... James Colomb spent the bulk of his career working in an oil field, then was injured. The family’s sole source of income now is his disability check. Ann Colomb—“Miss Ann” to those who know her—is a homemaker.
It was from this unlikely setting, the United States alleged, that Ann Colomb and three of her four sons ran one of the largest crack cocaine operations in Louisiana. Over the course of a decade, prosecutors said, the Colombs bought $15 million in illicit drugs with a street value of more than $70 million...
...But in the ensuing months, the government’s case unraveled, exposing some unsettling truths about the way jailhouse informants are used in America’s courtrooms.
...“It’s wide open now,” Melancon says. “Everybody in the federal prisons knows what’s going on outside. You’ve got these people with extremely long drug sentences who hear about a drug case in a town they’re familiar with. Now they realize they can tell the government things that happened years ago—true or not—and get time off their sentences.”
...“In my 30 years of criminal defense, the federal court system is the worst I’ve ever seen,” Boustany says. “Especially with drug cases. The government is prodding these people to lie. There’s no other way to look at it.”
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
agreed
So true... but that’s the point. They did not have to be proven INNOCENT. They had to be proven GUILTY and from what I can see from the story, there was not enough manufactured evidence and testimony available to be able to “prove” that lie.
“from what I can see from the story, there was not enough manufactured evidence and testimony available to be able to “prove” that lie.”
What you mean is “prove that lie TWICE”.
I see nothing here that admonishes them either. Looks like a family with a drug history.
Did you even read the whole article? The single conviction was a plea deal when RESIDUE was found in a car Sammie Davis Jr. was in... and had no drugs found on HIM. The 72 grams of crack was found in the room the (now) son-in-law was staying and he called it HIS, not his (now) mother-in-law’s... and the gun belonged to HIS mother. No guilt and no admonishment needed. They are NOT a family with a drug history. The persecutor needs a nice long bath in a vat of boiling Crisco. READ THE WHOLE STORY before commenting.
I read the whole story. There is a common theme throughout it. Drugs and trouble with the cops.
The authorities over-stepped their bounds, no doubt. They did not, however, pick a wholesome family out of a hat to set up. This family has a history of involvement with drugs and police involvement.
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