Got this in an e-mail and I am wondering if it's true

[babsbunny]

What happened to Richard Reid - the shoe Bomber?

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.

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, 4and 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.)

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 everyone 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 for 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. Because 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 bear 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 justice.

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. Pass this around. Everyone should and needs to hear what this fine judge had to say. Powerful words that strike home.

[HeresyLives]

1. Sounds like a Snopes look-up to me.

[Richard D]

2. Snopes says

It's true.

[HeresyLives]

3. Grandstanding judge then.

[SharonAnn]

19. Yes, it was on the TV news and in the newspaper and news magazines at the time.

[T Wolf]

4. This judge sounds like he took the opportunity to lecture Reid, using reich-wing talking

points about freedom, the flag, and being a "real" warrior.

Just sentence him and be done with it. Most judges are such asses - they think they are god because in their courtrooms, they are.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Two things

You think Reid was not a lowlife terrorist?

And you think lectures are not given at sentencing? They are, all the damn fucking time... and those talking points in this case were very much appropriate. Mr. Reed failed, in this case, to change how we do business. He was still afforded a day in court, with judge and jury. So that lecture was not that off, in this case.

[T Wolf]

12. Not defending Reid in any way. Just criticizing the judge for acting like an ass.

What good do lectures like this do except (a) give the judge an opportunity to exercise his ego, (2) produce footage for political ads when he runs for re-election, and (3) spout off on his particular brand of justice.

I am sure that the words have no impact on any defendant / criminal (now that he has been found guilty). So, what's the benefit?

[msanthrope]

15. Federal judges aren't elected. And their 'lectures' often give a victim's family

a sense of justice.

Further, I find that I want a judge to give an detailed explanation as to why they reached the sentence they did. Most appeal lawyers like that, too.

[unblock]

17. you forgot (4) give the defense grounds for appeal

can you imagine what it must be like for a prosecutor to work hard to secure a conviction and get everything you ask for at sentencing only to hear the judge grandstand and demonstrate a bias and have the whole conviction overturned on appeal just because the judge could restrain himself and shut up after "... consecutive life sentences"?

hell, he could even save the lectures for the book tour if he really needed to vent.

[jberryhill]

21. Nothing the Judge Says After Sentencing Is Grounds For Appeal

These kinds of post-sentencing statements are common.

[unblock]

25. not if, during sentencing, the judge reveals a bias

it might not win an appeal in and of itself, but it would certainly weigh in a decision if the defense claims the trial was unfair because the judge was biased.

if the lecture is based on the laws and on the facts of the case and the factual findings of the jury, then all is well.

but if the lecture is an appeal for headlines and the media attention might be favorable if the outcome is guilty and unfavorable if the outcome is not guilty, then that is a potential problem.

[tabasco]

23. LOL. Name one.

[farmout rightarm]

18. I'm just guessing here, you haven't spent much time in courts...right?

Explaining (justifying) a sentence has been standard procedure for ...well forever in courts that derive from English justice...which is what America has.

[loudsue]

16. If the judges words are riech-wing, then I'm a reich-winger.

Everything quoted in the OP is true to me. Grandstanding, maybe. But I agree with it all.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. True and IIRC Mr. Olberman covered it

as well

[mn9driver]

6. True story, and the judge got it exactly right.

These people are not "warriors". They are not "enemy combatants". They are not entitled to be referred to as such, or treated as such.

They are criminals. They should be tried using the same system of justice that we give any criminal. The judge was completely correct, just as the Obama administration is completely correct in how they are handling the underpants bomber.

[Spoonman]

9. X2 n/t

[Spoonman]

7. Appears to be true

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/01/31/reid.transcript/

[Make7]

13. People should probably also listen to what Richard Reid said.

 

REID: ... With regards to what you said about killing innocent people, I will say one thing. Your government has killed 2 million children in Iraq. If you want to think about something, against 2 million, I don't see no comparison.

Your government has sponsored the rape and torture of Muslims in the prisons of Egypt and Turkey and Syria and Jordan with their money and with their weapons. I don't know, see what I done as being equal to rape and to torture, or to the deaths of the two million children in Iraq.

So, for this reason, I think I ought not apologize for my actions. I am at war with your country. I'm at war with them not for personal reasons but because they have murdered more than, so many children and they have oppressed my religion and they have oppressed people for no reason except that they say we believe in Allah.

This is the only reason that America sponsors Egypt. It's the only reason they sponsor Turkey. It's the only reason they back Israel.

Perhaps they don't hate us for our freedoms.
 

[farmout rightarm]

20. Sounds a lot like what Scott Roeder who killed Dr. Tiller said.

...

[tularetom]

10. It really doesn't matter what the judge says

What matters is that the civilian US courts were perfectly capable of trying convicting and sentencing a dipshit like this "shoe bomber".

And they could easily do the same with the "underpants bomber".

[Posteritatis]

11. It's usually safe to assume forwarded emails are lies.

Verify, sure, since most of them are on snopes, but yeah.

[RedCappedBandit]

14. Impressive, until he started babbling about freedom in the wind. nt

[Berry Cool]

22. The way I would answer this email is to say

"Yes, it's true--all true--and doesn't it just go to show that the way to handle suspected terrorists in America is to arrest them, put them on trial and subject them to our criminal justice system? I think so. Justice was done in the case of Mr. Reid, and I am very happy it was! What a country!"

[laughingliberal]

24. Exactly! Why are we afraid to try them in our judicial system?

We could take to forwarding this around and accuse the ones who oppose trying them here of being a buncha pants wetters.

[babsbunny]

26. I will do that!

Thanks!

[Bandit]

27. You are not a soldier in any war, you are a terrorist.

You are not an "enemy combatant", you are a terrorist.

Whoop there it is...

[ChicagoSuz219]

28. Great speech...

...but, isn't/wasn't Reid an American?

[hayu_lol]

29. The judge hit exactly the right tone with this speech/explanation...

and will give Mr Reid something to consider as the years pass. Perhaps it should be painted upon the walls of his cell for him to contemplate it.

He is a terrorist, nothing more. Justice, in his case, has been served.

[Edweird]

30. British, I believe.