Re: John Walker Lindh pleads guilty -- The Official Scholars' Message Board

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: [1] ]

Subject: Re: John Walker Lindh pleads guilty

Author:
Alex

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 09:23:27 07/16/02 Tue
In reply to: Rebel 's message, "John Walker Lindh pleads guilty" on 15:25:14 07/15/02 Mon

I find myself agreeing with Beau. Not as uncommon as one might think. Nevertheless, I think there are other good reasons for this plea bargain. One might ask, why a plea bargain at all. I believe I can safely say it is because both sides felt they had an equal chance of losing the case. In Lindh's case, he was going to face a jury that was composed of Americans--it has been shown that Americans are very upset with the Taliban. He risked having the ju find him guilty purely due to his connections with the Taliban.

As for the United States, its case was not so air-tight as they had us believe. First of all, the interview in which he "pleaded guilty" to crimes against the nation--Treason in other words-- was taken under duress. Lindh had no lawyer present, he was surrounded by armed soldiers, and he was being administered large doses of morphine for injuries sustained "during his capture". This puts a lot of holes in the US's case.

I think the prosecutors knew they had a good chance of losing, and Lindh's attornies knew he ad a good chance of being the sacrificial lamb for the pent up American anger present in the jury members. It was thus in both parties interest to have Lindh take the plea bargain. As Beau said, 20 is a long time to be in prison, especially since that is as long as he has currently lived free. Also, we have no hard evidence, other than his morphine-induced bragging, that he was acutally involved in any true crime or act of terrorism against the United States...that he joined another nation's army in order to further enslave its people is not of concern to the American court's, though it should be of great concern to us as human beings. I think this was a very good outcome, and it saved you and me hard-earned tax dollars. Bully for Washington!

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]