Bloglines - American "justice"

Bloglines user bill.giltner@gmail.com has sent this item to you.

Left I on the News A leftwing view of the day's news and the way it's presented in the media

American "justice" By Eli I've written many times about the Cuban Five who have been in prison for just under eight years for "crimes" very similar to those of the "Miami Two" I wrote about below -- spying not on the U.S. government, but on right-wing Cuban exile groups with a history of terrorist acts. But the charges against one of them, Gerardo Hernandez, were more serious, because they involved alleged complicity in the shoot down of a Brothers to the Rescue [sic] airplane, allegedly over international waters. As a result of his conviction on this charge, Gerardo was sentenced to not one but two life sentences. So what's wrong with that? Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban Parliament, reminds us of why the American "justice" system is a misnomer: In May 2001...the prosecution lawyers at the Cubans' trial "actually stated that the available evidence was insufficient to convict Gerardo Hernandez, and thus, the jury would absolve him." Judge Joan Lenard, however, refused to withdraw the charge. "She said it was too late, that that was what they had said for seven months, and that was how it should be presented before the jury." "Incredibly, the 12 jury members were capable of quickly deciding that Gerardo Hernandez was guilty of something for which there was no evidence, he noted.   Alarcon emphasized that the U.S. Constitution says that a guilty finding must be beyond any reasonable doubt: "More than reasonable doubts, there is enormous doubt when the accuser himself is saying that something is false and asking for it to be revoked." Let's summarize: Prosecution charges a defendant with a crime for which they later admit there is insufficient evidence to convict. Injustice #1. Prosecution asks to withdraw the charge, and Judge refuses to allow them, on the grounds presumably that the letter of some law is more important than the spirit of some law. Injustice #2. Judge evidently refuses to order a directed verdict of not guilty on the charge. Injustice #3. Jury convicts on the charge for which there was no evidence. Injustice #4. Gerardo Hernandez has been in jail for nearly eight years. Injustice #5. Gerardo's wife, Adriana Perez, has been denied a visa by the U.S. government six times, and hasn't seen her husband for years, an egregious violation of human rights. Injustice #6. I could go on, but I'll stop. American "justice." What a joke. Except Gerardo and the other four, and their families, aren't laughing.