Posted on 07/25/2017 6:25:02 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
Railroad — to convict with undue haste and by means of false charges or insufficient evidence; to push through hastily or without due consideration
Before jury selection began Monday in the retrial of four defendants in the 2014 Bunkerville standoff at the Bundy ranch federal Judge Gloria Navarro granted a prosecution motion to bar presentation of evidence “supporting jury nullification.” In April, in the first of three scheduled trials for the Bunkerville defendants —charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy, extortion, assault and impeding federal officers — ended in a mistrial. The jury found only two of six people on trial guilty of some charges but deadlocked on the others. The jurors agreed to convict on only 10 of the 60 charges brought. None of the conspiracy charges stuck.
The standoff occurred after armed Bureau of Land Management agents attempted to roundup Bundy’s cattle after he had refused for 20 years to pay grazing fees in the Gold Butte area. The BLM said he owed $1 million in fees and penalties. Faced with armed protesters the BLM agents eventually released the cattle and left to avoid potential bloodshed. Two more trials are pending, with Cliven Bundy and his four sons scheduled to be the last. Most defendants have been jailed without bail for a year and half.
Two of Bundy’s sons, who had been arrested on separate but similar charges of illegally occupying an Oregon wildlife refuge to protest the jailing of father and son ranchers under a terrrorism law for letting fires get out of control and burn a few acres of federal public land, were acquitted of those charges this past fall by a jury, along with their co-defendants. In mid-June the prosecution filed a motion asking the judge to bar the jurors in the current trial in Las Vegas from ever even hearing certain so-called state of mind arguments — arguments that the defendants felt justified to show up and protest the confiscation of Bundy’s cattle because of abusive use of force by law enforcement and that they were simply exercising their First and Second Amendment rights.
Navarro noted in her ruling Monday that in the first trial she had rejected the Bill Rights arguments and that would stand for this trial. “The Court also rejected Defendants’ proposed instructions on the First and Second Amendment because they are not legally cognizable defenses, or in other words, the law does not recognize these Amendments as legal defenses to the crimes charged.” (navarro ruling) A rather convoluted argument, but what else would one expect from those who see their jobs as enforcing laws rather than upholding rights.
The Bill of Rights were added to the Constitution in order to spell out certain inalienable rights that Congress must not trample with its laws.
First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech… or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Second Amendment: “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
But those are not defenses against laws prohibiting behavior that causes federal officers to feel threatened.
Navarro quoted from a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the topic of jury nullification:
Jury nullification occurs when a jury acquits a defendant, even though the government proved guilt beyond a reasonable doubt… Juries do not have a right to nullify, and courts have no corresponding duty to ensure that juries are able to exercise this power, such as by giving jury instructions on the power to nullify…
On the contrary, “courts have the duty to forestall or prevent [nullification], whether by firm instruction or admonition or… dismissal of an offending juror,” because “it is the duty of juries in criminal cases to take the law from the court, and apply that law to the facts as they find them to be from the evidence.” Juries are just rubber-stamps.
Navarro concluded, “The Court will not permit argument, evidence, or testimony regarding Defendants’ beliefs about the constitution as such beliefs are irrelevant and a possible jury nullification attempt.”
The concept of jury nullification dates to colonial days and is widely taught in journalism schools, because it involved printer John Peter Zinger who was indicted for criminal libel against the colonial governor and tried in 1735. His attorney Andrew Hamilton offered as a defense that what was printed was true, even though under the law truth was not a defense but rather a confirmation of guilt.
The judge at Zenger’s trial ruled that Hamilton could not present evidence of the truth of the printed statements. “The law is clear that you cannot justify a libel,” the judge said. “The jury may find that Zenger printed and published those papers, and leave to the Court to judge whether they are libelous.”
Here is a portion of Hamilton’s closing argument: It is natural, it is a privilege, I will go farther, it is a right, which all free men claim, that they are entitled to complain when they are hurt. They have a right publicly to remonstrate against the abuses of power in the strongest terms, to put their neighbors upon their guard against the craft or open violence of men in authority, and to assert with courage the sense they have of the blessings of liberty, the value they put upon it, and their resolution at all hazards to preserve it as one of the greatest blessings heaven can bestow…
The loss of liberty, to a generous mind, is worse than death. And yet we know that there have been those in all ages who for the sake of preferment, or some imaginary honor, have freely lent a helping hand to oppress, nay to destroy, their country… This is what every man who values freedom ought to consider. He should act by judgment and not by affection or self-interest; for where those prevail, no ties of either country or kindred are regarded; as upon the other hand, the man who loves his country prefers its liberty to all other considerations, well knowing that without liberty life is a misery…
But to conclude: The question before the Court and you, Gentlemen of the jury, is not of small or private concern. It is not the cause of one poor printer, nor of New York alone, which you are now trying. No!
It may in its consequence affect every free man that lives under a British government on the main of America. It is the best cause. It is the cause of liberty. And I make no doubt but your upright conduct this day will not only entitle you to the love and esteem of your fellow citizens, but every man who prefers freedom to a life of slavery will bless and honor you as men who have baffled the attempt of tyranny, and by an impartial and uncorrupt verdict have laid a noble foundation for securing to ourselves, our posterity, and our neighbors, that to which nature and the laws of our country have given us a right to liberty of both exposing and opposing arbitrary power (in these parts of the world at least) by speaking and writing truth.
The jury quickly returned with a verdict of not guilty.
If was good enough for the OJ jury.
BUT, the defendants are all white.
OJ rules do not apply.
The defendants don’t have a race card to play.
Is she screwing the case on purpose to get a verdict, kick it upstairs and out of her courtroom, figuring it will be adjudicated on appeal?
She knows the 9th circus will not overturn her.
This is the story of two people: One who has never had an honest thought in her life, let alone done an honest deed. Versus another individual who spent his life earning an honest living and supporting his family raising cattle. One has political influence and pull. One does not have political influence and pull. One sits in a jail cell. One is running around free as a bird spreading death and destruction far and wide.
Great injustice.
But remember the percentage of people who are acquitted in a Federal trial is exceedingly small. Nature of the beast.
Good post.
If I were president, I’d pardon each and every one of them. At its very worst regarding the events, this is a clash of a traditional and a contemporary culture.
Thank you.
I’ve been wondering why NO national media is reporting any of this.
It is self evident.
I would assume some of the federal appointees that are being stalled by congressional delays/inaction are hopefully headed to the 9th Circuit.
The appellate court won’t look much into the facts of the case but only the formatting. They might get lucky and an appeals court might give them a victory but an appeal to the 9th will likely squash that.
Trial courts have enormous leeway.
Part of the problem with resisting is you’re actively defying the law and then asking the arbiters of the law to excuse that act. That’s always a tough sell. There will likely be jail time for their actions. Not all rebellions end with the rebels winning, no matter their righteousness.
Mighty odd case management.
#BunkervilleLivesMatter
Did you ping on Twitter?
Like when AG Sessions comes to town and praises the prosecutors.
“Most defendants have been jailed without bail for a year and half.”
How is that constitutional? Americans are entitled to a reasonable bail and a speedy trial.
“The Bill of Rights are...”
The Bill of rights *is*. If you’re going to be on our side, don’t make us look like a pack of illiterates.
Coverage by Andrea Parker. This is end of day update 7/24/2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS8wFd1U66s
When a guy on our side is railroaded, we are concerned about the Bill of Rights.
But how many FReepers realize the number of innocent Blacks and Latinos in prison for exactly the same railroading?
The lawyer class serves the interests of the lawyers for the benefit of the lawyers... And the judge is a lawyer, in most cases vetted and put there by other lawyers.
Regardless of who the defendant is, the lawyer does not change his stripes.
> Judge won’t allow evidence that might have resulted in hung jury
You mean “exculpatory”?
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