Ancestors

Toot

Written by David Nathanson on 2025-01-20 at 17:02

LEONARD PELTIER'S SENTENCE COMMUTED TO HOME CONFINEMENT.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/biden-commutes-sentence-for-indigenous-activist-leonard-peltier-who-was-convicted-in-the-1975-killings-of-2-fbi-agents

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Descendants

Written by Haunted Head on 2025-01-20 at 17:11

@D_J_Nathanson insane it took this long !

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Written by OldAndcranky on 2025-01-20 at 17:12

@D_J_Nathanson about time.

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Written by Trillium Jones Take Care 🫂 on 2025-01-20 at 17:12

@D_J_Nathanson

This is great.

Any word on Steve Donziger?

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Written by tasket on 2025-01-20 at 18:25

@FrozenPeach @D_J_Nathanson SCOTUS ruled last year that judicial "gratuities" are legal... so Donziger should already be free, no pardon necessary. Right?

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Written by Trillium Jones Take Care 🫂 on 2025-01-20 at 21:03

@tasket @D_J_Nathanson

??

I don't know of any gratuity that Steve Donziger received.

"In a highly abnormal move, the judge in the suit ordered Donziger to turn over his communications, including his electronic case files, as part of the trial. The judge held him in contempt of court when he refused, then appointed a private law firm that had previously worked for Chevron to prosecute him. Donziger was sentenced to pre-trial arrest, and then sentenced to prison, where he served nearly 1,000 days — making him the only known case of a lawyer being held in detention for misdemeanor contempt charges."

January 13, 2025

https://truthout.org/articles/16-groups-urge-biden-to-pardon-lawyer-steven-donziger-who-took-on-chevron/

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Written by tasket on 2025-01-20 at 22:13

@FrozenPeach Donziger paid a judge something like a gratuity in a jurisdiction (IIRC Bolivia) where it was customary.

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Written by Trillium Jones Take Care 🫂 on 2025-01-20 at 22:17

@tasket

That is not why he's in trouble.

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Written by David Nathanson on 2025-01-20 at 22:32

@FrozenPeach @tasket I believe the gratuity reference is to an allegation by the corporations that Donziger bribed an Ecuadorian judge.

I don't know enough about that case to say definitively whether the allegation is false, but I sure am skeptical of it.

The SCOTUS reference is a bit facile. SCOTUS didn't approve "judicial gratuities." They can be outlawed. And the case involved a mayor, not a judge. -> cont'd

https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/snyder-v-united-states/

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Written by David Nathanson on 2025-01-20 at 22:36

@FrozenPeach @tasket The SCOTUS ruling was that the federal bribery statute outlawing bribery of state officials did not explicitly outlaw after-the-fact gratuities.

That same statute criminalizes the receipt of gratuities by federal officials.

While I don't like officials being wink-and-nod bribed, I also don't like the expansion of criminal statutes based on vibes. If you're going to send someone to prison, carefully define what conduct is criminal. The statute just didn't do that. -> contd

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Written by David Nathanson on 2025-01-20 at 22:36

@FrozenPeach @tasket

Lots of states define gratuities as criminal and SCOTUS said they were allowed to do that. It just wasn't the case there.

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Written by Sisukas Bill 🇫🇮 #Resist on 2025-01-20 at 17:13

@D_J_Nathanson He was convinced on faulty evidence and testimony of "witnesses" who never met him.

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Written by FoolishOwl on 2025-01-20 at 17:25

@D_J_Nathanson Long overdue, but at least it finally happened.

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Written by Support the Resistance on 2025-01-20 at 20:40

@D_J_Nathanson I don't know the full history, other than what I just read on Wikipedia, but it seems a man who is 80 years old who has already spent decades in prison should be able to walk free, and not confined to home. But that's just me.

• *EDIT That said. I'm happy for him and his family and for the cause he represented so many years ago.

[#]LeonardPeltier #Commutation

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