I was browsing news stories on the net as per usual today, and I came across a story many Kossacks will probably be interested in. I do not intend to go into any details of the case being mentioned. I intend only to share news with fellow Kossacks about another fellow Kossack. Frankly, I know only what I've gathered by following the events through facts available in the public record. And I've followed them because the Kossack being referenced was someone whose opinion I valued here. I look forward to seeing it here in the future.
But if a torture architect and apologist has his way, the future will be more distant.
Below...
Via Wired.com:
A Tennessee trucker who posted an eBay auction offering sensitive personal information that Las Vegas casinos kept on high-rolling clients has lost a bid to overturn his four-year prison term and conviction.
Ruling 2-1, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday set aside a nuanced legal argument concerning the defendant’s mental state at the time of the 2007 crime.
[...]
Jeff, aka
The Baculum King, mentioned the pending case in his (for now)
final diary at Daily Kos before reporting to Federal Prison. In that diary was contact information for Jeff.
I'm sure there are others here who might have more recent, updated information. If so, I would ask that they provide it below in comments.
More on the appeal ruling:
The San Francisco–based appeals court on Thursday dismissed his contention that a Nevada federal judge erroneously instructed the jury that prosecutors were not required to prove Greer “knew that his actions were unlawful.”
Extortion requires knowledge by the defendant that his actions were illegal, an instruction that a dissenting judge said should have been given to jurors. Greer maintained that he did not believe he acted unlawfully, because he found the documents.
“Here the jury could have found Greer guilty of extortion even if it did not find that Greer knew he was not entitled to receive money from the casinos,” Judge Owen Panner wrote in dissent. He added that jury instructions were confusing altogether.
But in a cruel twist of undeserving fate:
The majority was not buying it, however.
“The government is not required to prove that the defendant knew that his actions were unlawful,” Judge Jay Bybee ruled.
Yes, that
Jay Bybee: The Man Behind Waterboarding.
The guy who remains on that court as a result of the Obama DOJ whitewashing previous OPR findings and clearing Bybee and Yoo.
Requirements aside in the case: Something tells me there's nothing Bybee would find is required of the government to be proven.
Just assert it, and it is true. Torture is not torture! See? Neat how that works.
Anyway, in following TBK while he was here (and I would not dare speak for him, as others here are surely more qualified), I would guess he would want others to know of the recent rulings. And, as much as he'd want that, he'd probably also want others to have another read of this diary. It could save a life.
Any and all additional information is welcome in comments.