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OUTLINE OF TOPICS AND CASES (Listed according
to page)
A). SWAT team attacks, Donald Carson, Donald Scott, & Philip St. Hilaire.
1). Search &
Seizure; tag-team justice, with retirement of Douglas the Tag Team obtained majority on Supreme Court (S.C.) in 1975.
2).
Redefining illegal search and seizure; 9 ruling in 1976. Suspicionless searches of travelers upheld.
3). Piss test
of school students upheld, not violation of self-incrimination or unreasonable search Clauses.
4). Cruel &
Unusual Punishment; S.C. upholds application of Texas 3-strike law which netted William Rummel life for 3 financial crimes
totaling $230. Duhr received life for a third strike of drunk driving, and Smallwood for $27.64 worth of shop-lifted
meats--he was hungry.
5). Federal Armed Career Criminal Statute has a 15-year minimum for those who merely handle
a gun and have a total of 3 drug or violence priors. Courts split one conviction into multiple priors and they
count all burglaries as crimes of violence. The cost of incarceration.
6). Deal gets 105 years for 6 counts of violating
a gun statute--no one was harmed, he brandished a gun with him during the robberies. The travesty of statutory interpretation,
in Deals case of subsequent.
7). "No attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except
during the life of person attained." Article II, Sec. 4, Clause 2 of Constitution. This clause and the enactment
of First Congress makes it clear that forfeiture of felons estate (property) is unconstitutional.
8). Ferris Alexander
had forfeited more than a dozen stores and theaters, their inventory, and almost $9,000,000 in assets acquired from nearly
35 years as owner of these businesses. He also was sentenced to 6 years in prison and Fined $100,000, all for four magazines
and three videotapes deemed obscene. Done under RICO statute. Free Speech, Cruel & Unusual Punishment, and
Excessive Fine clauses of our Constitution ignored.
9). Leybda Corp. had their Lear Jet forfeited through no fault
of their own: Two crew members and a pilot lied on their visa applications, which were filled out upon landing in Miami for
emergency repairs. They were arrested and Leybdas plane was seized. The INS chose to apply a never-used-against-large carriers
statute that permits the forfeiture of the transport carrying "aliens not duly admitted". In another case, Anthony Calabro,
a disabled welfare recipient whose case was dismissed shortly following his arrest, then sued for return of his property.
But after 11 years and 4 court orders for its return, he has yet to receive his $3,085 from the DEA.
10). Seizure
of property by police termed legal massacre of innocent citizens. Double Jeopardy has 2 clauses: one prohibits being twice
punished, the other being twice prosecuted. The separate-sovereignty doctrine permits different states, different districts
of the federal courts, state and federal government, and different branches of government to prosecute a second, third
... times. National Obscenity Enforcement Unit prosecutes for same conduct in different district courts--P.H.E.'s. case.
11). P.H.E.'s acquittal in North Carolina & subsequent Utah prosecution.
12). Freedom of Speech; abridged
by chilling effect of RICO prosecution resulting in forfeiture of 12 stores, their inventory, jail time, all this for 4 videos
and 6 magazines, $105.30 worth of sales and rentals, deemed obscene in Pryba case. RICO replaces separate prosecutions in
different districts for same conduct as tool used by NOEU to drive out of business those in the pornography industry.
13).
Indictment of a grand jury becomes rubber stamp when S.C. refuses to consider any and all prosecutorial misconduct before
the grand jury. In case of John Williams, it was the withholding from the grand jury of substantial exculpatory evidence."
Blockburger Test for violations of Double Jeopardy was based upon same facts being used in subsequent prosecution.
14).
Blockburger replaced by Dixon ruling, which based upon elements of statute. Angel Rivera Feliciano pled guilty to possession
for 22.9 grams of heroin; a year later he was tried under conspiracy for the same heroin and sentenced a second time for the
same criminal act. Kurt Witte pleaded guilt to importation of pot. He was sentenced to that plus to a failed attempt to import
cocaine, the cocaine was relevant conduct. One year later he was tried and sentenced for the same cocaine, and the S.C.
found this not to be a violation of double jeopardy.
15). Due Process Clause has been interpreted as extending to
the fairness of proceedings, including the proceedings of plea bargaining and sentence. All pertinent risks to the plea bargain
are required to be revealed by the judge before accepting the plea bargain worked out by the prosecutor and defense attorney.
Witte never knew that his plea bargain for pot would result in him being twice sentenced for the unincluded cocaine.
16).
Larry Kinder bragged (lied?), upon receiving a front of methamphetamine from a police agent, that he had 17 ounces of meth
out on street. He pleaded guilty to the half pound of meth and was sentenced to 17.5 years; his brother received 33.5 years.
The judge sentenced them both for the half-pound given them and for the 17 ounces. Kinder maintained the 17 ounces was a fiction
used to support his being fronted a half-pound. At sentencing any reasonable inference will suffice under the Relevant Conduct
in the Sentencing Guideline Rules--even acquitted conduct has been used.
17). S.C. grants absolute immunity
from suit to prosecutor for all misconduct. Richard Imbler did not receive a fair trial because prosecutor knowingly used
false evidence. He was sentenced to die. It took 8 years to get his conviction overturned. His civil suit of his prosecutor
was barred.
18). Mrs. Green tried suing the government for the clearly wrongful death of her son. He was given Thorazine
for an asthmatic attack (a thing no normal doctor would do); thus a clear-cut case of wrongful death. Fourteen years later,
3 favorable appellate opinions and a S.C. opinion, yet there was no trial of the suit. Each time the case was sent back to
the District Court for further proceedings. The appellate and S.C. know that most of their liberal rulings are
ignored by the District Court. This is part of the facade of justice.
19). Excessive Bail Clause and Due Process
Clauses requirement that incarceration to protect society from criminals may be accomplished only as punishment of those convicted
for past crimes and not as regulation of those feared likely to commit future crimes, were held to be violated by the Bail
Reform Act of 1984--the Second Circuit ruled-- because it permits denial of bail based on fear of future crimes being committed
while on bail. The S.C. found no such violation of Constitution in denying Mafia boss Anthony Salerno bail. Today those charged
with serious crimes, such as the sales of a small amount of drugs are routinely denied bail by the federal courts.
20).
The First Judiciary Act (by First Congress) made it clear that the bail clause of the constitution meant that all, except
in cases of capital offenses, should have reasonable bail. "Incarceration of those on grounds of possible future crime
is consistent with usages of tyranny," two S.C. Justices wrote. The INS has on these very grounds detained over 2,000 Cubans
indefinitely. Three-strike laws are backdoor versions of incarceration based upon fear-of-future-crimes. Over half of
the 3-strikes cases are petty, and its application violates the Cruel & excessive Punishment Clause of our Bill of Rights.
21). Congress, police, prosecutors, and judges have formed a Tag-Team police state. The administration of law reflects
their personal prejudices, their political ambitions, and their bureaucratic goals. Of economically developed countries, our
system is the worse.
22) Epilogue: the SC's vision of justice is that of deference to the elected legislators.
It is now, because of SC rulings, the legislatures (federal and states) who decide what, if any, constitutional rights we
have. They have eviscerated court supervision of the police, prisons, and prosecutors--though sometimes there
are facade rulings.
The collection of published cases covering the above materials.
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