PARDON ME

“A people confident in its laws and institutions should not be ashamed of mercy.”
Justice Anthony Kennedy, 2003. 

Between 1885 and 1930 Presidents granted over 10,000 petitions for clemency. 

During his 4 1/2 years in office, President Obama has granted 39 out of more than 10,000 petitions for pardons or clemency. 

What happened? 

Mercy became a four letter word. 

35 vs 15.

Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years this week for stealing and releasing to Wiki-leaks thousands of classified US government documents. Included in those documents was classified video showing military helicopters shooting at and murdering civilians in two vans, including two journalists from Reuters. 

In 2008 Lt. Michael Behenna was sentenced to 25 years for murdering an unarmed Iraqi man. That sentence was later reduced to 15 years. 

Kill an unarmed man and get 15 years. 

Leak the video of the US military killing unarmed civilians and get 35 years. 

What happened? 

Common sense and justice became catch-phrases and by-products of a corrupt military system turned on its ear. 

GET IT IN WRITING

The Miami Dade SAO showed again why their word is NOT their bond and prosecutors are as trustworthy as those used car dealers that line SW 8th street. 

Judge Migna Sanchez-Llorens denied Cocaine Cowboy hit man Jorge Rivera Ayala's motion to enforce a verbal agreement to assist him in obtaining parole for his cooperation against Cocaine godmother Griselda Blanco. 

From David Ovalle's article in the Herald:

But Assistant State Attorney Penny Brill, head of the office’s legal unit, pointed out in a hearing earlier this month that the plea deal only indicated that prosecutors “might” help Ayala if he cooperated.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/22/3578999/miami-judge-rejects-freedom-for.html#storylink=cpy

No one should feel sorry for Ayala. He is a killer and deserves to spend his life in prison. But we didn't make a deal with him, the SAO did. They're the ones who got into bed with the devil. 

What happened here? A killer got screwed. BFD. 

But for now, the lesson is when you deal with the Dade SAO, never take them at their word. Get it in writing. 

See you in court. 

AY CARAMBA!

Hialeah Police Sergeant Tomas Munoz was arrested over the weekend for possession of  cocaine. 
Remarkably, Sgt. Munoz wasn't injured. You know how, mostly in Hialeah, defendants will repeatedly smack their head in to the jail cell bars while officers plead with them not to injury themselves? Or how a defendant in custody will throw himself down a flight of stairs, repeatedly? 
Well thankfully, those "accidents" that so often occur in Hialeah (Motto: "City of accidents, Ay Caramba!") did not happen with Sgt. Munoz. 

What did occur today, according to The Herald, is that Sgt. Munoz claims he was set up.....
by his girlfriend's pimp!!

This is an actual quote-we swear we are not making this up: 
"I met a girl- she happens to have a pimp, and we fell in love" Munoz said. "And he doesn't let her be free. This came about because he set the whole thing up."

Isn't that the way things always happen?  You meet this great girl, and she seems fantastic and you have a few dates, and then BAM! She happens to have a pimp, or a cat, or is a Jehovah's Witness, and the whole thing falls apart. 

And you have to sympathize with the poor sergeant. What's a lowly sergeant against a purple feather wearing, cadillac driving,  pimp? What can he do? The who thing is just so sad. Hopefully the truth comes out and justice is done. 

COCAINE COWBOYS. 

Jorge Ayala. Griselda Blanco- the godmother of cocaine. Paco Sepulveda. Centac 26.  Mickey Munday. Pablo Escobar. The shootout at the Dadeland Mall. Where  to begin? It was, it seems, an entire lifetime ago for us.  The names, the snitches, the deals, the cops, the cash. It was a world that no longer exists. 

 We'd have to explain most of Miami of the1980's to you to explain who Jorge Ayala is and how he fits in with out city's history. But for our purposes, he is a convicted hit man. And now, according to David Ovalle, he wants out after 25 years.  

For the whole story, just rent the movie.  Or send a tweet to @billycorben, just not while he's a juror. 

Boy, that was an unexpected blast from the past. 

See you in court. 

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/29/3371418/hialeah-cop-my-girlfriends-pimp.html#storylink=cpy