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- Hacker News
- Headline: "for Common Protest Activity"
Body: "material support for terrorists, attempted murder, possession and conspiracy to use explosives"
Um?
by tbrownaw - Did you read what they actually did or did you just read the charges?by queenkjuul
- Um what? The activity in the body aligns with the title.
Even the part that sounds the worst if you take it out of context, was not a murder or even failed attempted murder, but the successful prevention of a murder.
- ACAB
APAB
by LocalH - Order, now my court is in session, will you please stand? First, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Judge Hundred Years. Some people call me Judge Dread.
- Concealing a document? Conspiracy to conceal a document? What? I need to Google that. Sounds un-constitutional af!by NDlurker
- Moved a box of zines to their carby queenkjuul
- Hiding evidence tends to be bad, even when that evidence wouldn't itself be a problem without a crime for it to be evidence of.by tbrownaw
- This is absolutely outrageous. A complete mockery of the criminal justice system and especially of Texas.by pm90
- The other side said the same thing when the J6 rioters were sentenced. Likewise, these people will also get pardoned in a couple of years, so it's mostly symbolic.by happa
- Hardly seems a mockery of Texas. This is pretty on brand for the kind of state and the kind of people that keep re-electing Paxton.by jmye
- "Family members and supporters ... called the punishment cruel, callous and starkly disproportionate to the defendants’ actions." The defendants were convicted "on a variety of federal charges, including riot, material support for terrorists, attempted murder, possession and conspiracy to use explosives, and conspiracy to conceal documents."
What is a proportionate sentence for convictions like these? In other words, is there a norm when looking at similar convictions?
by Exoristos - Well one person got 30 years for "concealing documents" -- they moved a box of anarchist zines from their apartment to their carby queenkjuul
- There's a guy in my town who murdered a teenage girl then cut her up and threw her in a dumpster. He's got less time than these people.by NDlurker
- Note that Song was a firearms instructor and a United States Marine Corps Veteran .. I gather the State really wanted to send a message with the 100 year sentence handed down to him. But on another note, he did brandish a rifle and shoot a police officer, anyone could expect the worst for that. I guess they can appeal ?
- He wanted to claim an affirmative defense that he shot in order to defend others, since the cop who was shot had drawn and was aiming a firearm. The judge prohibited the defendant from bringing that defense claim (not that it likely would have worked).
Frankly I don't see how a cop presenting unwarranted deadly force is different from a random person doing the same. Especially now that we've had a decade of body worn camera footage to prove just how lawless American police are.
by SauciestGNU - The National Lawyers Guild released a pretty incredible statement about this trial. They basically were not allowed to mount a defense, in blatant violation of their constitutional rights.
> Alarmingly, this mistrial order is just the latest example of attacks on the Prairieland Defendants’ constitutional rights to access to counsel, a fair and impartial jury, an adequate defense, a public trial, and more. Judge Pittman has made highly unusual moves that suppress defense teams and which federal lawyers have not seen during their entire careers:
[...]
> NLG remains extremely concerned about these cases. Defendants’ First Amendment rights to free expression, assembly, and association; their Sixth Amendment rights to counsel; their Fifth Amendment rights to a public trial; and their Second Amendment rights to bear arms are under attack in North Texas. If unchecked and ignored, this case and the judicial decisions coming from it will set a very dark precedent for the rest of the country.
by dbingham