Learning from Gitmo

Learning from Gitmo

by digby

The "9 Travesties Of Justice In 2014 That Would Be Totally Unbelievable If They Weren’t True' from Think Progress are all horrible and you must read about each one of them to fully understand why some of us are convinced that the US needs to shut the hell up about how great we are.

But this one struck me as particularly interesting:

Mississippi defendants have been jailed for a year without ever being charged.

There is an epidemic of individuals in the United States jailed for extended periods of time before they’ve been convicted of anything. Many of them are stuck behind bars because they can’t afford bail, in a system that in too many jurisdictions punishes defendants simply for being poor, not because they are considered at risk of fleeing pending trial.

But mostly, we at least assume that after a few days or a few weeks, if a jail is going to keep holding them, they are charged with something. Not so in Scott County, Mississippi, according to a class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union this year. Octavious Burks had been in jail for ten months at the time of the lawsuit, on an arrest of attempted robbery with bail set at $30,000. But he had never been charged with anything. He had never been appointed a lawyer. And, by the account of the ACLU, he had twice before been held in jail for periods of 18 months and 16 months, before being released without ever having been convicted of anything.

Joshua Bassett hadn’t been indicted either. He’d been in jail for 9 months with bail set at $100,000, after an arrest for grand larceny and possession of methamphetamine. And he didn’t have a lawyer. But Scott County Senior Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon said he will not appoint Bassett a lawyer until he is formally indicted.

“This is indefinite detention, pure and simple,” said Brandon Buskey, Staff Attorney at the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project. “The county has tossed these people into a legal black hole.”

Huh. I wonder why anyone in America would ever think that indefinite detention and tossing people into a legal black hole is ok?

The idea that human rights don't apply to people we call terrorists was always a way to open the door to saying that human rights don't apply to people we call criminals. If human rights are subject to arbitrary exceptions there's no reason that logic wouldn't apply to the American justice system.  But don't worry.  They always know who the bad guys and the good guys are so justice will always be served.



It's annual holiday fundraiser time. Your support is very much appreciated.