Paul
Craig Roberts:
It's not just what Glenn Beck said. It's what Thomas Jefferson said, George Washington, Madison and all the rest of them. It's our whole heritage. We are the Constitution. That's what America is. It's not a race. It's not an ethnic group. It's not an ideological group. It's the Constitution that makes government accountable to people, and denies government powers to oppress the people. That's what the Constitution is. Now, it's been shredded in my lifetime, and so the only thing that can save us is to restore the veneration and respect for the Constitution. But you don't see that. You don't see it in the law schools. It's certainly not true among federal prosecutors. They are always running roughshod over it. They withhold exculpatory evidence; they pay witnesses for false testimony.
You might not be aware that over 95% of felonies are settled by coerced plea bargains. People never get a jury trial.
Rob Kall:
Wow! How many? What percent?
Paul Craig Roberts:
95% to 96%. And as a consequence, since they never get a jury trial, police investigations don't take place, because the police know there's no chance in hell of any of their evidence being tested in court. Years ago, prosecutors would look at both sides of the story. So, what happens was, an accusation is made, say OK here's a police case that says this person did this, and this is the evidence on the person's side. Now, what do I think of this? Is this worth prosecuting or not? A lot of time the prosecutor would say, "Let's throw this case out, I don't believe it," or "It's not worth prosecuting." But now, what happens is, the police make a charge, the prosecutor simply accepts it as a way to get another conviction and boost his conviction rate. And so " he waits on the defendant's lawyer to come and ask, "Can we make a deal?" Because the defendant's lawyer knows he can't possibly go to court. If he tries to go to court, the prosecutor then says, "Oh, well, you know, it's not just this charge. There is also X,Y,Z,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10." This is how they busted Michael Milken. They kept upping the number of charges.
Rob
Kall:
The way the law is set up, there are so many ill-defined, unclear laws that they can just get you if they want to, and they use it to do what you describe, to force you to settle, to plead guilty, or they can just throw the book at you.
Paul Craig Roberts:
Right. They can keep throwing charges until you give up, and make a deal. You plead to a made-up offense that didn't even happen. You admit to some offense that didn't even occur. Then the prosecutor gets his conviction, and you to get a lighter sentence than if you had gone to trial.
So, that's the way the system works. Evidence doesn't play any part in it.
This is another example of the death of truth, because it used to be that the function of a trial was to find the truth. Justice depended on finding the truth, and that's what the trial did. Well, of course, there aren't trials anymore, or very few of them. And, so, the truth is never found. It's dead.
The defendant is forced to admit to some crime that never occurred in order to avoid the trauma of going to court on multiple charges of things so many it's impossible that one individual could have committed them all. At some point, the jury may throw out 90% of the charges. But the ones that are left, if you go to trial, you get a much more severe penalty than if you make a deal.
Rob Kall:
That happened to a colleague of mine. He was charged with 130+ counts. It took two years, but every single one of them were eventually dropped, because he fought it. But how many people fight that?
Paul Craig Roberts:
He was lucky. How many fight and win? Practically none.
Rob Kall:
That reminds me. We still have Bush-appointed, Rove-coached federal prosecutors in the Department of Justice that Eric Holder is keeping at work, that Obama is keeping at work. And I got to know Cyril Wecht a bit. He is the medical examiner for Pittsburgh, and they went after him. It cost him millions of dollars to defend himself. They basically accused him of using a fax machine for personal uses something like fifteen dollars worth of faxing unbelievably ridiculous charges. He got off after mortgaging his house and what-have-you to deal with it.
click here
But Don Siegelman, down in Alabama ". He's not off. He was accused of doing something that previous governors did. Governors since then have done exactly the same thing, and Holder ...
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/3/6/162825/9568
Paul Craig Roberts:
He was framed up. I wrote about that case, as did a number of people.
click here
He was completely framed up and railroaded, there's no doubt about it. In fact, the judges and prosecutors conspired to frame him and railroad him. Now, these (guys) are Justice Department. These are not Alabama white racist judges. These are federal, presidentially-appointed prosecutors, federal judges, and they did it. So, this is what I was saying earlier. There is no respect in any institution of the government for truth, for justice. There is none.
Rob Kall:
We've got to keep fighting.
It's not just what Glenn Beck said. It's what Thomas Jefferson said, George Washington, Madison and all the rest of them. It's our whole heritage. We are the Constitution. That's what America is. It's not a race. It's not an ethnic group. It's not an ideological group. It's the Constitution that makes government accountable to people, and denies government powers to oppress the people. That's what the Constitution is. Now, it's been shredded in my lifetime, and so the only thing that can save us is to restore the veneration and respect for the Constitution. But you don't see that. You don't see it in the law schools. It's certainly not true among federal prosecutors. They are always running roughshod over it. They withhold exculpatory evidence; they pay witnesses for false testimony.
You might not be aware that over 95% of felonies are settled by coerced plea bargains. People never get a jury trial.
Rob Kall:
Wow! How many? What percent?
Paul Craig Roberts:
95% to 96%. And as a consequence, since they never get a jury trial, police investigations don't take place, because the police know there's no chance in hell of any of their evidence being tested in court. Years ago, prosecutors would look at both sides of the story. So, what happens was, an accusation is made, say OK here's a police case that says this person did this, and this is the evidence on the person's side. Now, what do I think of this? Is this worth prosecuting or not? A lot of time the prosecutor would say, "Let's throw this case out, I don't believe it," or "It's not worth prosecuting." But now, what happens is, the police make a charge, the prosecutor simply accepts it as a way to get another conviction and boost his conviction rate. And so " he waits on the defendant's lawyer to come and ask, "Can we make a deal?" Because the defendant's lawyer knows he can't possibly go to court. If he tries to go to court, the prosecutor then says, "Oh, well, you know, it's not just this charge. There is also X,Y,Z,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10." This is how they busted Michael Milken. They kept upping the number of charges.
The way the law is set up, there are so many ill-defined, unclear laws that they can just get you if they want to, and they use it to do what you describe, to force you to settle, to plead guilty, or they can just throw the book at you.
Paul Craig Roberts:
Right. They can keep throwing charges until you give up, and make a deal. You plead to a made-up offense that didn't even happen. You admit to some offense that didn't even occur. Then the prosecutor gets his conviction, and you to get a lighter sentence than if you had gone to trial.
So, that's the way the system works. Evidence doesn't play any part in it.
This is another example of the death of truth, because it used to be that the function of a trial was to find the truth. Justice depended on finding the truth, and that's what the trial did. Well, of course, there aren't trials anymore, or very few of them. And, so, the truth is never found. It's dead.
The defendant is forced to admit to some crime that never occurred in order to avoid the trauma of going to court on multiple charges of things so many it's impossible that one individual could have committed them all. At some point, the jury may throw out 90% of the charges. But the ones that are left, if you go to trial, you get a much more severe penalty than if you make a deal.
Rob Kall:
That happened to a colleague of mine. He was charged with 130+ counts. It took two years, but every single one of them were eventually dropped, because he fought it. But how many people fight that?
Paul Craig Roberts:
He was lucky. How many fight and win? Practically none.
Rob Kall:
That reminds me. We still have Bush-appointed, Rove-coached federal prosecutors in the Department of Justice that Eric Holder is keeping at work, that Obama is keeping at work. And I got to know Cyril Wecht a bit. He is the medical examiner for Pittsburgh, and they went after him. It cost him millions of dollars to defend himself. They basically accused him of using a fax machine for personal uses something like fifteen dollars worth of faxing unbelievably ridiculous charges. He got off after mortgaging his house and what-have-you to deal with it.
click here
But Don Siegelman, down in Alabama ". He's not off. He was accused of doing something that previous governors did. Governors since then have done exactly the same thing, and Holder ...
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/3/6/162825/9568
Paul Craig Roberts:
He was framed up. I wrote about that case, as did a number of people.
click here
He was completely framed up and railroaded, there's no doubt about it. In fact, the judges and prosecutors conspired to frame him and railroad him. Now, these (guys) are Justice Department. These are not Alabama white racist judges. These are federal, presidentially-appointed prosecutors, federal judges, and they did it. So, this is what I was saying earlier. There is no respect in any institution of the government for truth, for justice. There is none.
Rob Kall:
We've got to keep fighting.
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