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Is "The Disappeared" the new American trend?

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The Los Angeles Newspaper, the Daily Journal, devoted to coverage of all news in their area about judicial issues, is monitoring the Richard Fine case and has posted some information on their blog.

Judicial Watch has covered the Fine case.

If Fine remains adamant and refused to recant and if the judge continues to keep Fine in jail, the case could become a modern version of the Prisoner of Chillon story, which would, if it became widely reported in the pro-Liberal mainstream media (which presumably is relentless in their effort to find stories which will delight Democratic Party members and simultaneously infuriate Republicans) would cause a massive "see we tried to warn you" reaction from the Democrats who have continuously and strenuously objected to the Bush solution to "enemy combatants" as the start of an alarming trend.

One other aspect of the continuing debate about the rights of prisoners, which seems to have also slipped below the nation's journalistic radar screen is a recent trial balloon statement that

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger casually mentioned recently was a possibility that it might save money to use prisons in Mexico to house Californians found guilty of crimes and worth of a jail sentence. Why didn't Fox or the pro-Liberal media mention this? Is there any danger that any such efforts to outsource the detention of prisoners would have a downside?

On the other hand, wouldn't Fox be delighted with the prospect of being able to cover the plight of any Democratic politician who might suffer the fate of a jail term that would be served south of the border? Wouldn't Fox relish the advantage that would arise should any Democratic politician facing such a fate and be reluctant to serve a jail term in Mexico? Wouldn't Fox assert that any such objections smacked of hypocrisy on the part of the Democrats?

Curiously, a Los Angeles Times gained access to the prisoner for a story, but reporter Leslie Dutton, of Full Disclosure, has been denied her request for a similar opportunity for an interview with the lawyer while he remains in custody.

Fine is approaching the first anniversary of the start of his period of "coercive confinement." He has submitted various legal motions including a petition to the Los Angeles County Sheriff asking for his writ of habius corpus rights. Fine has received no reply. It has been traditional under some obscure clause in a thing called the Magna Carta (from Great Britain!) for prisoners in the country which evolved from British colonies, to be entitled to such a reply. (Yeah, yeah, yeah go cry on the King's shoulder.)

In early 2009, the California legislature passed an emergency measure to retroactively cover the judges' interests. Unfortunately in the hast to pass the measure, a bit of a bit of "crack in the floor" unfortunate wording may have provided Fine with the basis for taking his particular case into "extra innings" (i.e. "all the way to the Supreme Court").

Most county jails are used for periods of confinement of less than a year's duration, and so the Fine team may now be pinning their hopes of release on a technicality that could work in the prisoner's favor. A question of basic rights may occur if Fine is transferred to a prison without any specific sentence time.

[Here, for any blogger or New York Times reporter, who is just starting to do some fact finding about this new aspect of the old "debtor's prison" concept of confinement, are some links to some online material which might be of assistance in getting a handle on this complex legal issue.

Jan 2009 Victoria Kim story link
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/05/local/me-contempt5

Kim jail interview link
http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/theissues/ktxl-news-issues-judicialbias0607,0,206146.story

Leslie Dutton denied interview link
http://news.findlaw.com/prnewswire/20100129/29jan20100600.html

Link to story about L. A. judges pay
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/06/la-judges-agree-to-voluntary-pay-cuts.html]

[Note: Yes the html is sloppy, but working on a portable laptop that' running out of battery juice, in a public library does have its limitations. Sorry!]

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BP graduated from college in the mid sixties (at the bottom of the class?) He told his draft board that Vietnam could be won without his participation. He is still appologizing for that mistake. He received his fist photo lesson from a future (more...)
 

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