JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Friday, February 14, 2020

PARDON US

The ABA had this to say:

The American Bar Association steadfastly supports judicial independence and the sound exercise of prosecutorial discretion. Public officials who personally attack judges or prosecutors can create a perception that the system is serving a political or other purpose rather than the fair administration of justice. It is incumbent upon public officials and members of the legal profession, whose sworn duty it is to uphold the law, to do everything in their power to preserve the integrity of the justice system.

Judy Perry Martinez
President, American Bar Association

Legally speaking, and we are going to use some technical legal terms, The ABA are idiots.

Lets review. The DOJ files a memo seeking to incarcerate a 68 year old political gadfly for a decade for lying to Congress, and all the ABA can do is criticize the president for speaking out against draconian sentences? 
The ABA are idiots. 

Sure the president is protecting a political crony. But this is an opportunity to talk about sanity in sentencing. Why do we have guidelines that recommend incarceration for non-violent offenders for decades?  Maybe it's time to have that discussion. 

We all know that there are hundreds of collateral consequences of a criminal conviction. You lose your wealth. You lose your ability to work in a meaningful way. And you lose your freedom. 

Does the DOJ really think that if Roger Stone got five years there are people who would say to themselves "I'm thinking of obstructing justice and if Roger Stone got ten years I wouldn't do it, but since he got only five, I'm gonna give it a whirl." ?

If all the ABA can do out of this mess is support the martyred prosecutors who were the ones trying to put Roger Stone in prison for a decade, then in our considered opinion...and you may have heard this before...
The ABA are idiots. They missed a chance for real change. 

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Im happily surprised by your stance, Rump. Reflects badly on me that Im surprised at all, of course. But well done.

My social media feed is full of passionate Miami defense attorneys suddenly outraged that overzealous prosecutors are being reigned in. Just as it was full of passionate defense attorneys salivating at the prospect of convicting George Zimmerman. Disheartening to say the least.

The most ardent pro-impeachment Democrat should still be dismayed by a federal SWAT team, with CNN inexplicably in tow, bursting down doors to arrest a septuagenarian on charges of perjury and witness tampering. And disturbed by the reality that the convicting foreperson in this criminal case either lied during voir dire about her partisan activism and social media postings about the defendant's arrest -- or worse was honest and was still allowed on the jury by a federal judge.

Stone may be repugnant, but if repugnance is the standard by which defense attorneys decide when to care, most of our clients are fucked.

Rumpole said...

Thank you for that comment.

Anonymous said...

Does the ABA realize that judges first become politicians in order to be elected to wear the robe? Do they realize that judges and prosecutors need to stroke politicians in order to elevate themselves higher on the pole?

Anonymous said...

Sharp eyed viewers may have seen Sen Klobuchar staffers chowing down on burgers with the famous "RaV" brand on the bun. Yes, the rumors are true- chef Juanky has signed a contact to provide commissary to the Klobuchar campaign, including the famous Ren a Venue #14Kobe beef burgers, slathered with Wisconsin cheddar, and RaV's special sauces including the Japanese Unami secret sauce made from five spices.
Crispy Asian wings, crawfish fritters, simple roasted turkey sandwiches, and a large vegan selection will also be available.

Anonymous said...

Long weekend. Broke up with GF. New place 1BR at Four Seasons Residences Brickell. Gym, spa, sauna, maybe a massage.
Then Hulu, a full plate of Hill Street Blues, St Elsewhere, maybe some MASH for laughs, perhaps an episode of Fraiser. Order up from the steak house. Drink a shot or two of Pappy Van Winkle, eat the steak with a nice Calif Cab- a Caymus sounds nice. Read a book for a while before bed.
Rinse and repeat for Sunday and Monday.
Not a bad weekend. Not bad at all.

Anonymous said...

RaV burgers were the best. The chuck was like 75-25. A high fat content made it luscious and the Kobe beef made it amazing. Well marbled, Juicy. I heard that sometimes they would grind in a little lamb for extra flavor.

Anonymous said...

One of your best posts even. It made me stop and think. I am forced to reevaluate my position. Perhaps a year and a day plus probation is the fair punishment. Like felony Petit Theft or a Habitual Traffic Offender is prison a fair punishment for the crime committed or do we punish Stone because we hate who his friends are?
Sir Wilfred

the trialmaster said...

3:37-- Do not be a fool. If any of our clients would ever put the judge presiding over our case on the internet with crosshairs of a gun scope on her face, they would be immediately arrested by the secret service, have their bond revoked and face additional charges for threatening a federal officer. Stone, the creep with Nixion's tattoo which covers his entire back should get much more than the 7-9 years. He is a dirty trickster from the Nixon era and a true wackoo. I wonder if Rogow, while an excellent appellate attorney had ever tried a jury trial before?

Anonymous said...

One of the best posts ever. There are entrenched political interests who, because of Trump, want nothing less than seeing Roger Stone skinned alive in the public square, Joan of Arc style. No worries though. There is a pardon right around the corner for Stone.

Anonymous said...

Mystery solved. Probably. I charter a fishing boat in Vinalhaven, Maine. Coming back from a day loaded with Cod, we dock next to a boat and I hear one mate call to another about "Cap'in E". "Who's that?" I ask. He shakes his head as I see a man from the side with a bushy winter beard saunter away. I only get a glance but he looks verrrry familiar. "Which is his boat?" I ask. He nods his head and I see a trawler called "FSE". Hmmmm… "Weird name for a boat" I say.
"Ayup" he replies. "Bought old Abe Trayin's rig named Round Robin. Abe fished these waters goin on 35 years. Up and sold when he said he got a big offer from some southern city guy."

FSE?....Field Sobriety Exercises?? Cap'n E. Gotta be the Easy E. Retired to run a fishing boat in Maine. ....pretty sure anyway.

Anonymous said...

Trialmaster:
Stupidest post all month. I absolutely LOVE how you bring up his nixon tattoo! That should be a +4 in the F*** Republicans Sentencing Guidelines!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Rumpole, I am truly glad to hear your above comment on the ABA nonsense about the Stone fiasco.
I was your typical Ivy League liberal who joined Richard Gerstein’s Prosecutors in the 70’s. Shocked a lot of friends who thought PD was the only way to go bc you had to fight THE SYSTEM! Always thought the Big Ger, Carhart, and Gelber were out to do justice. All of us ASAs wanted to follow their lead.
I can’t imagine anyone from that time finding the Stone prosecution fair and just, from the SWAT arrest with CNN in tow, to the ridiculously biased jury panel the judge allowed, to the over the top sentencing recommendation for an old non-violent man.
But so many of our local alleged “defense lawyers” find that just fine bc OrangeManBad.
God help us, and help this profession.

Anonymous said...

I truly despise Trump but, I have friends who like him and support him. I just don't understand what they see in that guy. Telling local prosecutors to lighten up on Trump's friends is corruption pure and simple yet, Trumpers don't care.

I care and my FBI and US Attorney friends are all upset even if they are republicans. He needs to be replaced ASAP.

Anonymous said...

This is hilarious! A scummy, degenerate white guy gets better than usual treatment by the federal court and suddenly America is shocked. WOW! People are getting dragged out of bed by the feds at 5 in the morning to be arrested? Who knew. Get out on ROR and then put out a picture of crosshairs on the trial judge to the infowars gun nuts and receive a stern lecture in return. What an outrageous attack on the 1st amendment. A lot of people here came from countries where the justice system is used to license friends and punish critics. This is blatantly the same thing. You want to change the guidelines? be my guest but don't tell me this is a president being concerned with the guidelines for threatening witnesses being inordinately high. It's banana republic time! Let me know when Hillary gets "locked up".

Anonymous said...

If you're shocked that the feds dragged Stone out of bed at 5 AM with a SWAT-team like operation, you have zero experience working federal cases. This is business as usual. Plenty of my non-violent, first-time offender, white-collar clients got the same treatment. Thing is, no government official (and certainly not the President) intervened or gave a shit about their sentence. I can certainly see the forest for the trees and will be happy if this somehow, miraculously, leads to actual criminal justice reform. But the corruption here is obvious. That's the concern, not Stone's actual sentence.

Kissimmee Kid said...

Dear Friday, February 14, 2020 3:37:00 PM;

In Federal Court, according to the Judge's order, one has to object to a juror being seated, before one can complain about that juror being seated. Who knew?

K

Anonymous said...

The Trialmaster predicts Harvey Weinstein will be found NOT GUILTY, or at the most guilty of a battery,( IF lessers are given)

Anonymous said...

Kissimmee kid

Nice condescending post. Guess you are the smart guy? And in your tiny brain the fact the juror lied about whether she had posted about stone is irrelevant?

LOL

Kissimmee Kid said...

Yes, 5:38:00 PM, I am the smart guy, and you sir, are a partisan hack, spreading lies to harm America. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-was-a-juror-in-roger-stones-trial-we-took-his-rights-seriously/2019/11/22/234d7df0-0d46-11ea-97ac-a7ccc8dd1ebc_story.html

K

Anonymous said...

Kissimmee kid--

What lie would i be spreading? The juror posted about stone's arrest--the defendant himself in this very case!--and lied about it on the juror questionairre. These are the undisputed facts. Stone's defense had a right to know that info, and if they did, the foreperson would have been struck for cause and never seated.

You post that a different juror felt the process was fair to him?

And that matters?

Are you mental?

Read your orignal idiotic post. You faulted stones defense for not objecting to this juror, even though they had no reason to object because the juror lied!! That is idiotic! I guess when you do jury selection, you say "to preserve any issues for appeal or a motion for a new trial in accordance with the courts order, i object to all jurors who may have lied in their juror questionairre. I have no reason to think anyone lied, but i object for the record." Thats what you do?

And pointing out your ridiculous "logic" is "spreading lies to harm America."

You are certifiably crazy. Nuts. Whacko. No one said stone is innocent. But you want the law -- as it applies to all defendants including your clients -- to be that jurors can lie about posting on social media **about your clients and the actual arrest for which they are on trial** and that is just fine?

That is justice? Thats fair? No new trial? Lock him up for lying wHO CARES the foreperson LIED about posting about the defendant?

What is wrong with you sir?

Anonymous said...

Kissimmee Kid is trolling. Don't bite his bait.