Devastatingly Sour Grapes
I usually leave reading the Washington Post to Ruth: she's much stronger than I am. Unfortunately, Ruth is on what I hope is a brief medical leave to nurse an injured right hand back to health, so I made the foray over there today. I almost wish I hadn't, because I found an article that raised my blood pressure to dangerous levels. It seems that immigration authorities are attempting to deport a legal resident of the US on terrorist charges, the same charges of which he was recently acquitted in a federal trial.
The case of the "Liberty City Seven" stymied jurors. After a three-month trial late last year, they deadlocked on nearly all of the charges regarding the purported plot by several men to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago.
The one thing jurors could agree upon, however, was that one of the men, Lyglenson Lemorin, 33, was not guilty. ...
Yet more than two months after his acquittal on charges of supporting terrorism, Lemorin remains incarcerated, and U.S. immigration officials are moving to deport him to Haiti, which he left more than 20 years ago. Officials are asking an administrative judge to order his deportation based on the same charges that the jury dismissed.
The government's effort to punish Lemorin despite the acquittal is drawing fire from his attorneys and some legal observers as an attempt to seek retribution in a high-profile case that prosecutors lost after a fair trial.
Here's the sad part: the deportation proceedings are perfectly legal.
Legally, there is nothing to bar the government from pursuing immigration sanctions against Lemorin, experts said, though such action is rare after an acquittal. The immigration charges are a civil matter, and a judge will apply a less strict standard of evidence to the charges that were brought at the criminal trial. ...
David A. Martin, a University of Virginia law professor who served as general counsel at the Immigration and Naturalization Service during the late 1990s, said that "the government is perfectly within its legal rights to go ahead in two different forums even after they've lost in one." He added, "Whether it's a sound use of prosecutorial authority is a much tougher question."
Oh, please!
There's nothing tough about seeing this as an abuse of prosecutorial authority, an act of petty revenge by a government which lost the trial of the century. Since the original charges were brought against Mr. Lemorin, his wife gave birth to a premature baby who subsequently died. She in now in renal failure and awaiting a transplant. His other kids are wondering whether they'll ever see their father again. And some pencil-dick prosecutor is groping for vindication.
That's what this country has come to over the last seven plus years.
Shameful.
The case of the "Liberty City Seven" stymied jurors. After a three-month trial late last year, they deadlocked on nearly all of the charges regarding the purported plot by several men to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago.
The one thing jurors could agree upon, however, was that one of the men, Lyglenson Lemorin, 33, was not guilty. ...
Yet more than two months after his acquittal on charges of supporting terrorism, Lemorin remains incarcerated, and U.S. immigration officials are moving to deport him to Haiti, which he left more than 20 years ago. Officials are asking an administrative judge to order his deportation based on the same charges that the jury dismissed.
The government's effort to punish Lemorin despite the acquittal is drawing fire from his attorneys and some legal observers as an attempt to seek retribution in a high-profile case that prosecutors lost after a fair trial.
Here's the sad part: the deportation proceedings are perfectly legal.
Legally, there is nothing to bar the government from pursuing immigration sanctions against Lemorin, experts said, though such action is rare after an acquittal. The immigration charges are a civil matter, and a judge will apply a less strict standard of evidence to the charges that were brought at the criminal trial. ...
David A. Martin, a University of Virginia law professor who served as general counsel at the Immigration and Naturalization Service during the late 1990s, said that "the government is perfectly within its legal rights to go ahead in two different forums even after they've lost in one." He added, "Whether it's a sound use of prosecutorial authority is a much tougher question."
Oh, please!
There's nothing tough about seeing this as an abuse of prosecutorial authority, an act of petty revenge by a government which lost the trial of the century. Since the original charges were brought against Mr. Lemorin, his wife gave birth to a premature baby who subsequently died. She in now in renal failure and awaiting a transplant. His other kids are wondering whether they'll ever see their father again. And some pencil-dick prosecutor is groping for vindication.
That's what this country has come to over the last seven plus years.
Shameful.
Labels: Immigration, Terra Terra Terra
posted by Diane at 12:43 PM
1 Comments:
Stay clear of Novakula and Hiatt, Diane.
They're bad for your health.
I hope Ruth makes a speedy recovery.
~
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