In the Letters to the Editor section of the Wall Street Journal on December 6, the newspaper ran 3 responses to the op-ed that Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin should be pardoned.
Titled “Over-the-Line Prosecutors Should Be Liable,” the newspaper recapped the responses: “Why is the government exempt from penalties and the requirement to restore the loss it caused by fraudulent means when such harm is exposed?”
Doug Chapman from Santa Ana, California, wrote:
Regarding Charles B. Renfrew and James H. Reynolds‘s “Obama Should Pardon This Iowa Kosher-Food Executive” (op-ed, Nov. 28):
Yes, Sholom Rubashkin should be pardoned.
The bank and Mr. Rubashkin’s losses, due to the government’s improper meddling in the sale of his company, should also be restored. It seems clear that government prosecutors had an animus against other Jewish family members, persons not even charged with a crime.
When a private company or individual fraudulently takes value from another, there are remedies to get that value returned. Why is the government exempt from penalties and the requirement to restore the loss it caused by fraudulent means when such harm is exposed?
The late Senator Ted Stevens was prosecuted with evidence government prosecutors knew was faulty. He lost his Senate seat and died before the government fraud on the court was admitted. There was little penalty for those prosecutors who improperly tried the Stevens case. Why do government prosecutors generally get a pass when found misapplying the law?
Correcting prosecutorial misconduct requires the defendant to resist plea offers and demand a jury trial per the Constitution. Every year federal prosecutors get 95% to 97% of their criminal convictions with a plea bargain. Each one cancels what would have been a draconian trial penalty of several times the plea offer if the jury convicts. This means only 3% to 5% of federal defendants get an open trial at which the government must produce, in public, enough evidence to persuade a jury to convict.
This may be one reason the U.S. has 25% of the world’s prison population but only 5% of the world’s population.
Morgan Foster from Indianapolis, IN, wrote:
The authors seek a presidential pardon for Sholom Rubashkin on a theory that his conviction and subsequent imprisonment in a criminal case related to his company’s bankruptcy was unjust.
Maybe so, but they write: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the company’s plant and arrested hundreds of the firm’s workers who were undocumented immigrants.” For that alone, Mr. Rubashkin deserves some prison time.
Abraham Pinter from Brooklyn, N.Y. wrote:
In the event that Mr. Rubashkin is still suffering in prison at the end of the Obama presidency, one would hope that President Trump would seize the opportunity to correct this egregious example of prosecutorial misconduct shortly after he assumes office.
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-plea-to-president-obama-please-pardon-sholom-rubashkin-today
Mr Shalom Rubaskin had already did his time in jail and now it’s the time for his release.
AMEN SELAH
that many of the other countries don’t prosecute for egregious, horrendous crimes such as kidnapping of millions not thousands of children to use in torturous child labor, and all kinds of other serious crimes including torture and murder, theft and kidnapping etc. Which has nothing to do with America’s criminal system problems.
The U.S. has 25% of the world’s prison population & comparatively just 5% of the world’s population. If this is true as stated something’s seriously not right here.
It should be noted that he was later found to be innocent of that,too.
Time for justice!
They totally ignored the fact that all the immigration convictions were thrown out. So they weren’t even taken into consideration (or should not have been).
Also, in response to Morgan Foster’s comment regarding the undocumented immigrants: “for that alone he should’ve done some time”. (R”L) Here’s the issue: from the thousands of charges under 100 were actually brought to court (and yes they say it’s because they don’t have the time to go through each charge) the true purpose why the government did that – mind you in both cases! Was to dirty him up… To make him look SO bad that the jurors say well, “he’s got to be guilty of something!” R”L Well, that case was won fair and square – because they… Read more »
Un aleh sonei Yisroel zollen deharget veren
May Hashem free this wonderful tzaddik!!!!!!!!