Posted on 01/21/2011 3:30:39 PM PST by ventanax5
There was some head-scratching a couple of days ago over the Justice Department’s indictment of Jared Lee Loughner in the Tucson shootings case because he was not charged with the murders of Chief Judge John Roll and Gabriel Zimmerman, a legislative aide to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Instead, the indictment charges only the attempted murders of Representative Giffords and her two other aides, Ron Barber and Pamela Simon. (My column a few days back explained that there is no federal jurisdiction to charge murder or attempted murder in connection with the victims who were not federal officers.)
I was interviewed by Politico‘s Josh Gerstein for his report a couple of days ago. As I told Josh, I don’t think there is anything mysterious afoot — unusual, yes, but not mysterious. Ordinarily, when a defendant is arrested on a “complaint” (i.e., not a grand jury indictment but a mere arrest warrant supported by an agent’s complaint affidavit describing the probable cause for the charges in the warrant), the feds must indict that defendant within 30 days under the Speedy Trial Act. If that defendant has been denied bail, however, the time to indict shrinks to ten business days.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
President Obama during his acknowledgement to Sheriff Dupa of Pima county at the Wellstone II eshortation stated that Judge Rolls was visiting (implying he was not on Federal business) with the Congresswoman but his staff said he appeared on the podium to articulate about the backlog of deportation court cases, thus on federal business.
When Obama did this he jeprodized the Federal case.
Neat eh ?
That's a very good point, Churchillspirit -- and I think it goes beyond that.
I'm not a lawyer, but maybe I should be. When the story about the Federal charges against Loughner was announced and the FBI got involved, I speculated at the time that any Federal charges related to the murder of Judge Roll probably wouldn't stand up to legal scrutiny. Not only was he not acting in his Federal capacity when he was murdered . . . but the Federal prosecutor would have a very hard time proving that Loughner even knew who Roll was -- and what his Federal position was -- at the time of the murder.
I would assume that the same holds true for Gabe Zimmerman, too.
Loughner was charged with Judge Roll's murder upon being taken into federal custody, but they dropped that charge from the indictment. I have no problem with that - if Congresswoman Giffords had been shot while pushing a shopping cart inside that Safeway (instead of at an organized event), it'd be difficult to say she was injured during the course and scope of her duties.
I don't think this is about Democrats vs. Republicans; it's about the U.S. Attorney not looking incompetent when the defense gets charges dismissed. Let the State of Arizona run a concurrent prosecution - it's the way the system is supposed to work.
Looks like this case isn’t nearly as cut and dried as they are letting everyone think:
http://www.kgun9.com/global/story.asp?s=13881188
“Why no murder indictments in mass shooting case?
“....he’s only formally indicted for trying to kill[ Gabrielle Giffords and two of her aides. ...
“There are plenty of witnesses ready to say they saw Jared Loughner empty his gun into the crowd at the Safeway.
[Oh yeah? Name one.]
“Investigators say they have high resolution video showing him killing Federal Judge John Roll. ...
[’Cept no one gets to see it.]
“So far there’s no murder charge, Federal or state. ...
“Both Storts and Piccarreta think any trials will be years away.... .”
[By which time Loughner will have been totally ‘broken’ and will be begging to plead guilty. So much for the right to a speedy trial.]
My only point is that when You accept the Mantel of a Major Federal Official, You are at work or On Call 24/7! Even if Congressman Giffords was pushing a shopping cart, this flamin madman didn’t care,he only went there because it was known she would be there! If he wanted to kill her in her “Official Capacity!” Why did he murder the innocent 9 year old, or the Judge, or slaughter all the rest there that day?
Judge Roll just didn’t fit the MSM’s “Tea Party Murderer” meme.
Maybe Obama jeopardized the case unintentionally--you can't expect him to know all the fine points of the law. Of course he did go to Harvard Law School, but that was just to burnish his credentials as a community organizer.
If Holder doesn't have to bother with any cases other than the Congresswoman's, that will give him more time to work on how to make Sarah and Rush accessories to the murders.
Obama knew what he was doing. Let’s not let him get away with it.
If you watched the exhortations and remembered the FOX report on any future FR postings about Judge Roll feel free to remind others.
Taxpayer money bonfire! Whoo-Hoo!
I’m beginning to think this case may be the death of the video stoplight ticket. If they have this all on video, and they STILL need hundreds of LEOs to interview the witnesses [“More than 250 federal agents and 130 local detectives have conducted more than 300 interviews to determine the facts“], then your video is junk, lawdog...
$46 per diem x 14 days x 250 Federal LEOs = ~$160,000
Over a million smackers just on this numbers crunch. Good thing the country's not broke...
Party on, Garth!
Very little attention has been given to the judge who was killed, and even less to the fact that he saved the life of one of hte other people there by acting as a human shield.
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