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It was a well orchestrated screw up - his father was chairman of Commonwealth Edison, one of the richest men in Illinois, and a primary financial support of the Daley family and political machine.

Ayers was royalty slumming among the peasants and playing at revolution. His family's money and political connections fixed the case, by having the prosecutors deliberately screw up, and a judge then threw the case out on the resulting technicalities.

Ayers is above the law, because the Daley political machine and the Democratic party generally, is above the law. To them, the whole point of political power is impunity.

Not a procedural screw up, just some VERY heavy pressure from way up the food chain. Remember, this case was being prosecuted during the days of the Jimmy Carter administration, and they were always much more keen on procedure than on actually carrying out a prosecution, and besides, this guy may be useful again sometime in the future. Counting on the doctrine of “double jeopardy”, in which a person may not be tried for the same crime twice (what a laugh THAT is), once Bill Ayers got off on these charges, they could never be brought against him again.

First, some dots. William Charles Ayers is the son of Thomas Ayers, a VERY big deal in Chicago and Illinois Democrat circles, and who was influential on a number of different boards. From his obituary:

“EVANSTON, Ill. -— Thomas G. Ayers, 92, who was a member of the Northwestern University Board of Trustees for 30 years, died June 8 at his home in Hyde Park.

A memorial service was held Friday (June 15) in Thorne Auditorium at the School of Law.

Mr. Ayers, who became a member of the Board of Trustees in 1966, served as chairman from 1975 to 1986. He became a Life Trustee in 1987 and, in recognition of his service to the University, the 164-student residence hall at 2324 Campus Drive was renamed the Ayers Residential College of Commerce and Industry in 1984.

During his tenure as chairman of the board, he was instrumental in the success of several fund-raising campaigns, the expansion of undergraduate housing, funding for deferred maintenance of the physical plant and strengthening of athletic programs.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, Mr. Ayers in 1938 joined Public Service Co., then a subsidiary of Commonwealth Edison Co. He became president of Commonwealth Edison in 1963 and served as its chief executive officer and president from 1973 to 1980.

A long-time civic and business leader, Mr. Ayers served as chairman of the Metropolitan Crusade of Mercy, president of the Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry and a member of the boards of the Chicago Symphony and Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center. He served as chairman of the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities and was honored as the 1973 “Man of the Year” by the Chicago Urban League. He also served on the board of directors of G.D. Searle & Co., Sears Roebuck & Co., Zenith Corp., Northwest Industries, First National Bank of Chicago and Tribune Co.

Mr. Ayers received honorary degrees from DePaul University and Elmhurst College.

He is survived by four sons, William, John, Richard and Thomas Jr.; a daughter, Catherine Allen; 10 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.”

So you messed with young Bill Ayeres only at your own great peril in Chicago, and with clout like that, Thomas Ayers could reach all the way into the White House in 1980, causing much of the evidence to be rebranded as “tainted”, therefore resulting in a mistrial, and freeing of a known and confessed criminal terrorist.

"the evaluation by that company was that it was not worth continuing with exploration"

It kind of goes like this;

(1) The lawyers realized early on that they could get rich by manipulating the legal system.

(2) They also realized that the easiest way to manipulate the system would be if they made the laws.

(3) They proceeded to get themselves elected to our legislatures and proceeded to make our laws better, for themselves. That meant that the laws had to be more complicated. Notice old laws are not repealed, instead news laws are made to make the old ones better(look at the fix for the credit crunch and you will see no repeal of the old laws that caused it).

(4) After generations of lawyers making the law better we now have a legal system that has next to nothing to do with justice but more about generating revenue for lawyers.

(5) Now you get just as much justice as you can afford and Ayers has either a lot of money backing him or he has control of a lot of money.