[DeTomaso] THE INEPT SHOE BOMBER / GOD BLESS AMERICA, Dick Ruzzin

[Dickruzzindesign at aol.com]

 Subj: FW: Sentence of Reid  

 


 Sentence of Reid

Remember the guy who got on a plane with a bomb built into his shoe and tried 
to light it?

    Did you know his trial is over?
    Did you know he was sentenced?
    Did you see/hear any of the judge's comments on TV or Radio?

    Didn't think so.


Everyone should hear what the judge had to say.

     Ruling by Judge William Young, US District Court.
< /U>
Prior to sentencing, the Judge asked the defendant if he
had anything to say.  His response: After admitting his guilt to the court 
for the record, Reid also admitted his "allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam, 
and to the religion of Allah," defiantly stating, "I think I will not 
apologize for my actions," and told the court "I am at war with your country."

Judge Young then delivered the statement quoted below:

January 30, 2003, United States vs. Reid. Judge Young:

"Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court imposes upon you.

On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the custody 
of the United States Attorney General.  On counts 2, 3, 4 and 7, the Court 
sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence on each count to 
run consecutively.  (That's 80 years.)&nbs p;

On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years again, to be 
served consecutively to the 80 years just imposed.  The Court imposes upon you 
for each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000 that's an aggregate fine of $2 
million.  The Court accepts the government's recommendation with respect to 
restitution and orders restitution in the amount of $298.17 to Andre Bousquet and 
$5,784 to American Airlines.

The Court imposes upon you an $800 special assessment.
The Court imposes upon you five years supervised release simply because the 
law requires it.  But the life sentences are real life sentences so I need go 
no further. 

This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes.  It is a fair and 
just sentence.  It is a righteous sentence.

Now, let me explain this to you.  We are not afraid of you or any of your 
terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid.  We are Americans.  We have been through the 
fire before.  There is too much war talk here and I say that to every-one 
with the utmost respect.  Here in this court, we deal with individuals as 
individuals and care for individuals as individuals.  As human beings, we reach out 
for justice.

You are not an enemy combatant.  You are a terrorist.  You are not a soldier 
in any war.  You are a terrorist.  To give you that reference, to call you a 
soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether the officers of government do 
it or your attorney does it, or if you think you are a soldier.  You are 
not----- you are a terrorist.  And we do not negotiate with terrorists.  We do not 
meet with terrorists.  We do not sign documents with terrorists.  We hunt them 
down one by one and bring them to justice.

So war talk is way out of line in this court.  You are a big fellow. But you 
are not that big.  You're no warrior.  I've known warriors. You are a 
terrorist.  A species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted murders.  In a 
very real sense, State Trooper Santiago had it right when you first were taken 
off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the press and the TV 
crews were, and he said: "You're no big deal."

You are no big deal.

What your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys have 
grappled with and what I have as honestly as I know how tried to grapple 
with, is why you did something so horrific.  What was it that led you here to this 
courtroom today?

I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I ask you to search 
your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led you to do what 
you are guilty and admit you are guilty of doing?  And, I have an answer fo r 
you.  It may not satisfy you, but as I search this entire record, it comes as 
close to understanding as I know.

It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You hate 
our freedom.  Our individual freedom.  Our individual freedom to live as we 
choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not believe as we individually 
choose.  Here, in this society, the very wind carries freedom.  It carries it 
everywhere from sea to shining sea.  It is because we prize individual 
freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful courtroom.  So that everyone can 
see, truly see, that justice is administered fairly, individually, and 
discretely.  It is for freedom's sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously 
on your behalf, have filed appeals, will go on in their representation of you 
before other judges.

We Americans are all about freedom.  Beca use we all know that the way we 
treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties.  Make no mistake 
though.  It is yet true that we will bare any burden; pay any price, to preserve our 
freedoms.  Look around this courtroom.  Mark it well.  The world is not going 
to long remember what you or I say here.  The day after tomorrow, it will be 
forgotten, but this, however, will long endure.

Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America , the American 
people will gather to see that justice, individual justice, justice, not war, 
individual justice is in fact being done.  The very President of the United States 
through his officers will have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence on 
which specific matters can be judged and juries of citizens will gather to 
sit and judge that evidence democratically, to mold and shape and refine our 
sense of j ustice.

See that flag, Mr. Reid?  That's the flag of the United States of America .  
That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten.  That flag stands 
for freedom.  And it always will.

Mr. Custody Officer.  Stand him down.


So, how much of this Judge's comments did we hear on our TV sets?  We need 
more judges like Judge Young, but that's another subject.  Pass this around.  
Everyone should and needs to hear what this fine judge had to say.  Powerful 
words that strike home.  God bless America


Please forward this----------so that every American has a chance to read it.