Posted on 01/04/2016 3:52:15 PM PST by combat_boots
The media are focused on the “Bundy Militia” angle to the standoff in Burns Oregon, where Aamon Bundy and brothers have taken over a Malheur Wildlife Refuge Headquarters to draw attention to the plight of the Hammond family (Full Complex Back Story Here).
However, a little research (HatTip NeverTooLate) into the original legal battle reveals a rather startling update.
Hammond Family
The initial, and regarded by many as overreaching, federal prosecution resulted in a federal court judge Michael Hogan assigning a 3-month sentence and 1-year sentence for Dwight Lincoln Hammond Jr (73) and his son, Steven Dwight Hammond (46) respectively.
Even federal Judge Hogan stated the prosecution under “terrorism statutes” itself was an overreach and he refused to assign ridiculously high sentences for behavior that almost every rancher has conducted for generations.
Those sentences were fulfilled by the father an son duo in 2013 with Steven Hammond exiting prison in January 2014.  However, it was a decision by a U.S District Attorney named Amanda Marshall which called for an appeal to the sentencing:
"Amanda Marshall: Former U.S. Attorney for Oregon. Marshall recommended that the federal government challenge the Hammonds; original prison sentences. By law, the convictions come with mandatory five-year sentences, but U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in 2012 balked at the punishment and instead sentenced Dwight Hammond to three months and Steven Hammond to one year.
Marshall called Hogan's punishments "unlawful." The solicitor general authorized a rare appeal of an Oregon judge's order. The appeals court sided with the prosecution, and the Hammonds returned to federal court last year to face a second sentencing. At that hearing, U.S. Chief District Judge Ann Aiken ordered the pair to finish
(Excerpt) Read more at theconservativetreehouse.com ...
The Federal gov. has been doing this kind of thing to hundreds of ranchers for several decades.
Well, the Bundys fit the DHS memo of 2010.
I agree with the judge, they should have never been charged under that dubious statute. I only fault the judge for not throwing the case out, if he could have done so.
You seem to start from the perspective that the heavy hand of the FedGov is a desirable thing.
I start from the presumption these are good folks who did nothing wrong. The FedGov has been squeezing them for a long time.
Do you live a friggin' apartment?
But that's exactly my point. The law was passed just the way the Constitution prescribes.
What about this case is inconsistent with a republican democracy?
Not liking a law doesn't make it illegitimate.
Hogan retired the day he handed down his decision. I read that there was cake in the courtroom.
Right out of John Grisham.
Kook-Coos.
i believe it. not to mention farmers like roscoe filburn.
Just saw the local sheriff on TV. He says the Hammonds have turned themselves in, asked the people from outside to go home.
If there is equality under the law Amanda will go after him won’t she?
I have read that the 2006 back fire was started on a day upon which BLM started a number of fires, too. The winds picked it up and burned 1, count it, ONE, acre of ‘federal’ land. The fire saved the Hammond house AND WINTER FEED.
In the movies, the Hammonds would have been heroes for saving their crops and livelihood.
Not exactly. I do prefer rule of law and representative democracy to anarchy, however.
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We are a republic.
Should they have been convicted under terrorism laws in the first place?
[ How can this not be a form of double jeopardy?
My understanding of double jeopardy is that you can’t be tried twice for the same crime.
This is different, though is smack of being sentenced twice for the same crime.
Even though there were mandatory sentences, which I’m not sure I agree with, the judge is the one who erred here not the accused.
I’, no lawyer, but do have and understanding of some law.
Was is Clarence Darrow that said that the law is an ass?
This case seems to prove it. ]
This is like someone shoplifting, then getting arrested for it and serving time for it, then a few years Later the IRS charges you with evading taxes because you didn’t report the property you stole on your taxes.
Or at least it seems like it.
You know this kind of stuff is going to get personal for us in CO, right? Even if you don’t have a big ranch.
No real surprise here, a leftist stalking moonbat appointed by obama.
The Hammonds also fit the categories of the DHS memo of 2010.
We assume people are following laws. DC is following WHICH laws exactly?
The normal rules no longer apply.
From “The Saint”:
00:25:20 Hey. It is not for me.
00:25:23 It is for mother Russia.
00:25:25 But you want mother Russia, too, Mr. Tretiak.
00:25:29 Three million in a bank account in Zurich. Agreed?
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