20 March 2006

More Jury Evasion In The Federal Courts.

Rashaw is convicted at trial of illegal possession of firearms, and gets 30 years for uncharged murders. . . . the Eighth Circuit [also] notes that "Rashaw points out the guns he possessed with respect to his sentence were not involved in the double homicide." No problem, says the Eighth Circuit: "The § 2K2.1 enhancement for using a firearm in another felony need not be the same firearm involved in the offense of conviction."


From here, with the three page appellate court opinion here.

Appalling is a kind description of this kind of out of control judicial conduct at t he trial court level, endorsed as the law of the land without so much as a hint of disapproval of the practice. If we are going to punish someone for multiple murders, this needs to be charged and proven to a jury, not added as a footnote to the far less serious charges of possession of firearms unrelated to the murders in question.

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