US criminal justice system

 

Bob Choi & Others

4 May 2013

Better off dead

 

Bob Choi:

From what we read, this kid who created the explosion in Boston is supposed to be quite smart (getting a scholarship and attending medical school...) but getting caught alive is a very stupid thing to do, for him. I can't imagine what will be in store for him if he finds himself behind bars. It will be the nastiest welcome party ever held in any American jail. I am against violence on principle, but I would make this an exception. This kid deserves whatever awaits him in prison. I wish he will wish he is better off dead.

 
Peter Wu:

Fair comment ,Bob.

This Boston Marathon bombings bring out the best and the worst in the US of A.

Best: it has to be the amount and availability of law enforcement resources they
have brought to bear to bring the suspects to justice, and bring they did quickly.

Worst: the harshness of the US criminal justice system. For what he did, if found guilty, he would most probably be given multiple life sentences with no possibility of parole. Fair enough too. A live for three lives, and multiple injuries to others? If that’s what he is going to get, he’s got a bargain. To me, he should be shot, brought back to life and shot again – three times, at the very least.

But the point I am making is not what sentences he deserves but the uneven-ness in how they criminal justice is meted out in the US.

Already the law enforcement agency is saying that he will be treated as a special case and therefore denied the right to remain silence. I can only surmise that this is perhaps the first of many tweaks they will do in the criminal justice system to nail him. What’s next? Water torture, mock execution/electrocution, be set upon by a vicious dog? You use your imagination.

For God’s sake, he’s just been caught, he is too sick to talk, and the US is a zillion miles away from getting the complete picture about him, his motive and whether he is a foot-soldier in the bigger conspiracy, among many many things.

For them to even suggest the denial of his right to remain silence at such an early stage is sinister to say the least, and a grave committal of injustice at the worst. This is totally over the top.

You can see why convicts or criminals prefer to shoot it out with the cops, or kill themselves (Columbine and Sandyhook massacres) than face the US criminal justice system which is widely perceived to be racist and overly harsh.
So are we seeing the Guantanamo Bay justice again, where terrorist suspects are held indefinitely and be denied the rights under the due process of the law.
Are we also seeing the repeat of how they treat Private Manning, the US Army soldier who leaked Dept of Defence classified materials to Julian Assange?
 
Is the US squeaky clean in international law? Far from it. Look at how they manufacture ‘evidence’ to invade Iraq, and created the Tonkin Gulf Incident using fake photos to invade North Vietnam.
 
They say justice is blind. Based on what I have seen so far, justice is being meted out with one eye open. Soon it be meted out with both eyes open – and the odds are heavily stacked against this young suspect.