In my idea society, freeing a man from wrongful imprisonment by the state would be a high ritual: as soon as the pardon or appeal was read, trumpets would sound, cops would halt traffic so that the the governor and his retinue could march directly from the court house to the jail, ceremonial sledgehammers with carved ironwood handles would be used to break the hinges off the cage, the free man would be draped in a sumptuous cloak and have large over-boots fashioned out of bearclaws laced over his shoes, and then he would be led out of the cage, across the prostate backs of the original judge and any cop who testified in the case, as the trumpets continued to blow.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
QotD: At the Speed of Bureaucracy Edition
So Governor Christie did the right thing and turned Aitken loose. Or, at least, he started to get the paperwork moving to get Aitken turned loose. TJIC ponders on the concept of bureaucratic delay and, as an alternative, offers an appropriate ceremony for use on such occasions:
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13 comments:
Actually, I would prefer the State of New Jersey be forced to pay a million dollars an hour for Aitken's incarceration, and the gunslinging prosecutor who persecuted Aitken be dropped in a very deep hole.
But the best result of all would be a total preemption of State and local gun laws, allowing only those convicted of a violent crime, or adjudged insane in a court of law, to be deprived of their full Second Amendment Right.
Stranger
"...and then he would be led out of the cage, across the prostate backs of the original judge and any cop who testified in the case, as the trumpets continued to blow."
I never would have thought of giving their colons a Blood Eagle treatment myself, but you know...considering how they deliberately tried to, well, 'you know' Aiken, it find the imagery quite fitting. Particularly with the bear claw boots.
While I like the idea of NJ paying for his time in the slammer, they would just steal the money from taxpayers. Perhaps they should have to cut their spending by a million per hour?
And now he's home.
Wonder if he has reconsidered his decision to move to NJ?
What makes me sick is that Christie didn't pardon the guy, he simply commuted his sentence. Aitken gets to go home, but he's still a convicted felon with all the difficulty such status brings. Christie took the easy road.
As has been discussed elsewhere: A pardon requires an admission of guilt, and Brian Aitken (through his lawyers) did not seek a pardon.
Point taken. Commutation allows his appeal to go forward, which might result in the law being overturned in light of Heller and McDonald and a court declaration of innocence. A pardon would make the case moot.
Best wishes to Brian and his family over the holiday season. I hope his guns are somewhere safe as well, though they were probably stolen by the state folks.
"I hope his guns are somewhere safe as well, though they were probably stolen by the state folks."
At this point they are still evidence in a case where the defendant was convicted. Best he can hope for is an order for them to be held as evidence pending resolution of the appeal(s) - otherwise the state has the legal go-ahead to confiscate and destroy them.
It's in the attention to details, folks. WV = dunfer: what you are if you aren't paying attention.
stay safe.
Except.
Except that you should be freed if the verdict would have properly been found "Not Guilty," even if you're actually guilty.
I agree that we don't need to allow illegally-obtained evidence into court, and that we shouldn't allow the state to perservere when it acts improperly.
But there's a whole lot of these guys who are being retroactively found Not Guilty, who are anything but innocent.
Let them out. Say you're sorry. Admit your wrong-doing. (As a cop who has walked a suspect out of the jail on more than one occasion, I can say this.) But don't assume that the correct action is to kiss their feet. Because trust me: a high percentage of those feet are pretty nasty.
Somebody get back with the rest of the world and make the announcement when Aitken is actually on the other side of the barbed wire.
Keep count of how long this takes.
You'll not be impressed.
How much longer do we take this abuse is my question.
irritablearchitect,
"Somebody get back with the rest of the world and make the announcement when Aitken is actually on the other side of the barbed wire."
He has been already.
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