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Teen Spends Years At Rikers Island Without Being Sentenced
NPR ^ | Oct. 2, 2014

Posted on 10/31/2014 10:44:37 PM PDT by heartwood

Jennifer Gonnerman: "One night in the spring of 2010, Kalief [Browder] and a friend walking home late from a party in the Bronx, walking down the street and a police car pulled them over. A cop got out and said that a man in the back of his police car had accused Kalief and his friend of robbing him. And Kalief protested that he was innocent. There was nothing found in his pockets or his friends pockets, but they took them into the precinct, into to the station house anyway. Kalief thought it was a misunderstanding that might take an hour or two to clear up, but that's not what happened. He ended up spending three years in jail [without trial]

(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; US: New York
KEYWORDS: donutwatch
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To: heartwood

We must also strip government officials who were in the chain of ineptitude of their personal immunity. Officials should have a tangible fear of violation of the rights of citizens.


21 posted on 11/01/2014 4:11:34 AM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: heartwood

Did he ever return?
No he never returned
And his fate is still unlearn’d
He may sit forever
‘in the cells of Rikers
He’s the man who never returned.


22 posted on 11/01/2014 4:17:54 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: heartwood

Should be one hell of a lawsuit!


23 posted on 11/01/2014 5:16:32 AM PDT by high info voter
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To: mountainbunny

“He was innocent till proven guilty. Not stick him in prison and forget about him.

Fire the prosecutor and raise taxes. Eventually, the people will demand better.”........

Better yet, make the prosecutor and/or those who were responsible for the multiple delays serve the same amount of time the innocent kid served. I would bet there would be a rapid change in how prosecutors handled their cases.


24 posted on 11/01/2014 5:50:09 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: heartwood; Alaska Wolf; DCBryan1; Slings and Arrows; Doomonyou; napscoordinator; Shimmer1; ...
Not a JBT ping, more like a tyrants in black robes ping.

In a just world his final settlement would come out of the court employees' retirement fund.

JBT Ping list


25 posted on 11/01/2014 6:22:24 AM PDT by null and void (And I think Kevin Bacon is doomed.)
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To: Sherman Logan
Without most if not all of those being plea bargained, the system would collapse.

Perhaps this system needs to collapse.

Any system that depends on innocents pleading guilty to function obviously needs replacement.

26 posted on 11/01/2014 6:25:48 AM PDT by null and void (And I think Kevin Bacon is doomed.)
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To: wardaddy

Happy now?

27 posted on 11/01/2014 6:27:43 AM PDT by null and void (And I think Kevin Bacon is doomed.)
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To: null and void

No argument from me. Though the collateral damage from such a collapse would be immense.

And what’s the alternative? Increasing the size and cost of our “justice” system by 5x or 10x?


28 posted on 11/01/2014 6:32:34 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Sherman Logan
Something over 90%, perhaps more than 95%, of criminal cases are handled via plea bargains. Which don’t require prosecutors to do anything difficult or stressful.

They (the "law" side) 'can' even lie since they have not sworn in under oath.

29 posted on 11/01/2014 6:48:08 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Hey Obama: If Islamic State is not Islamic, then why did you give Osama Bin Laden a muslim funeral?)
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To: null and void

I’d like to see the prosecutor serve 3 years too.


30 posted on 11/01/2014 7:46:01 AM PDT by Shimmer1 (Just keep repeating to yourself, “All cultures are equal.”)
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To: bert
Did he ever return?
No he never returned...

Well played!

As a side note, perhaps the inmate should consider himself lucky that he didn't end up like Tom Dooley.

31 posted on 11/01/2014 7:48:05 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: heartwood

I guess all that money that goes to NY legal aid works like NY welfare, not!
This has little to do with the prosecutors and very much to do with the inept council that drains taxpayer dollars.
Perhaps a forced pro bono system dividing the poor among the cities law firms as as a condition of license would have effect. Just think, they could then all sue each other for incompetence of council.


32 posted on 11/01/2014 7:51:45 AM PDT by Steamburg (Other people's money is the only language a politician respects)
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To: mountainbunny
raise taxes

Sounds like democrap to me.

33 posted on 11/01/2014 8:13:27 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: heartwood

Why the prosecutor? There are numerous motions that could have and should have been filed by the defense. Legal Aid dropped the ball every bit as much as the prosecutor.


34 posted on 11/01/2014 8:16:41 AM PDT by Steamburg (Other people's money is the only language a politician respects)
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To: Sherman Logan

I think it is the Institute for Justice and others that are bringing up the evils of prosecutors leveling extra and extraneous charges to force people to plea bargain, so that those who don’t plea bargain face two and three times as much time in jail if they lose, and they usually lose.


35 posted on 11/01/2014 9:36:05 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: heartwood

If he was here illegally, he deserved whatever he got.


36 posted on 11/01/2014 9:36:53 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Any energy source that requires a subsidy is, by definition, "unsustainable.")
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Kalief Browder, the man jailed, is American-born. The man who accused him of robbery, or who the police said accused him, is the Mexican national.


37 posted on 11/01/2014 10:01:43 AM PDT by heartwood
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To: mountainbunny

Agreed! Award him one BEEELLion dollars!


38 posted on 11/01/2014 11:03:40 AM PDT by SgtHooper (Anyone who remembers the 60's, wasn't there!)
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To: heartwood

“Further, Browder refused to plead guilty on multiple occasions when it would have led to release. “

Nobody should be forced to plead guilty just to get out of jail. Would you? A conviction would ruin his employment prospects and the rest of his life.


39 posted on 11/01/2014 1:48:39 PM PDT by FreeInWV (Have you had enough change yet?)
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To: onedoug

People need to pay for what they allow their government to do. This disconnect where “Oh, no, the government did it, I had nothing to do with it” has got to stop.

I’m not one for running deficits, and New York isn’t one for cutting services.

You play the hand you are dealt.


40 posted on 11/01/2014 8:20:50 PM PDT by mountainbunny (Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens ~ J.R.R. Tolkien)
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