[BITList] Good Comments from this Judge

[FS]

/*This is worth a few minutes of your time. I wish we gave out sentences 
like this when appropriate.*/*/
/**

*Shoe Bomber Sentenced**

*Remember the guy who got on a plane with a bomb built into his shoe and 
tried to light it?*

Did you know his trial is over?
Did you know he was sentenced?
Did you see/hear any of the judge's comments on TV or Radio?
Didn't think so.!!!
Everyone should hear what the judge had to say.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

*_ Ruling by Judge William Young, US District Court._*

Prior to sentencing, the Judge asked the defendant if he had anything to 
say  His response: After admitting his guilt to the court for the 
record, Reid also admitted his 'allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam, 
and to the religion of Allah,' defiantly stating, 'I think I will not 
apologize for my actions,' and told the court 'I am at war with your 
country.'*/_

_/*/*_Judge Young then delivered the statement quoted below:_*/*/_
_/*

Judge Young:  'Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the 
Court imposes upon you.

On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the 
custody of the  United States Attorney General.  On counts 2, 3, 4 and 
7, the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the 
sentence on each count to run consecutively.  (That's 80 years.)

On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years again, to 
be served consecutively to the 80 years just imposed.  The Court imposes 
upon you for each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000 that's an 
aggregate fine of $2 million.  The Court accepts the government's 
recommendation with respect to restitution and orders restitution in the 
amount of $298.17 to Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to American Airlines.

The Court imposes upon you an $800 special assessment. The Court imposes 
upon you five years supervised release simply because the law requires 
it. But the life sentences are real life sentences so I need go no further.

This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes..  It is a 
fair and just sentence.  It is a righteous sentence.

Now, let me explain this to you.  We are not afraid of you or any of 
your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid.  We are Americans.  We have 
been through the fire before.  There is too much war talk here and I say 
that to everyone with the utmost respect.  Here in this court, we deal 
with individuals as individuals and care for individuals as individuals. 
  As human beings, we reach out for justice.

You are not an enemy combatant.  You are a terrorist. You are not a 
soldier in any war.  You are a terrorist.  To give you that reference, 
to call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether the 
officers of government do it or your attorney does it, or if you think 
you are a soldier, you are not----- you are a terrorist.  And we do not 
negotiate with terrorists.  We do not meet with terrorists.  We do not 
sign documents with terrorists.  We hunt them down one by one and bring 
them to justice.

So war talk is way out of line in this court  You are a big fellow. But 
you are not that big.  You're no warrior.  I've known warriors. You are 
a terrorist.  A species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted 
murders.  In a very real sense, State Trooper Santiago had it right when 
you first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered 
where the press and the TV crews were, and he said: *'You're no big deal.*'

You are no big deal.

What your able counsel and what the equally able  United States 
attorneys have grappled with and what I have as honestly as I know how 
tried to grapple with, is why you did something so horrific.  What was 
it that led you here to this courtroom today?

I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I ask you to 
search your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led 
you to do what you are guilty and admit you are guilty of doing?  And, I 
have an answer for you.  It may not satisfy you, but as I search this 
entire record, it comes as close to understanding as I know.

It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You 
hate our freedom.  Our individual freedom.  Our individual freedom to 
live as we choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not 
believe as we individually choose.  Here, in this society, the very wind 
carries freedom.  It carries it everywhere from sea to shining sea.  It 
is because we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this 
beautiful courtroom, so that everyone can see, truly see, that justice 
is administered fairly, individually, and discretely.  It is for 
freedom's sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your 
behalf, have filed appeals, will go on in their representation of you 
before other judges.

We Americans are all about freedom.  Because we all know that the way we 
treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties.  Make no 
mistake though.  It is yet true that we will bear any burden; pay any 
price, to preserve our freedoms.  Look around this courtroom.  Mark it 
well.  The world is not going to long remember what you or I say here. 
  The day after tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however, will 
long endure.

Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America , the American 
people will gather to see that justice, individual justice, justice, not 
war, individual justice is in fact being done.  The very President of 
the United States  through his officers will have to come into 
courtrooms and lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged 
and juries of citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence 
democratically, to mold and shape and refine our sense of justice.

See that flag, Mr. Reid?  That's the flag of the  United States of 
America  ..  That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. 
That flag stands for freedom.  And it always will.

Mr. Custody Officer.  Stand him down.

So, how much of this Judge's comments did we hear on our TV sets?  We 
need more judges like Judge Young. Pass this around.  Everyone should 
and needs to hear what this fine judge had to say. Powerful words that 
strike home.



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