Pursuant to my volunteer work, if I were to violate my privacy ethics, I could tell you some stories about criminal injustice that would make your hair stand on end. Prosecutors will often not hesitate to act criminally, because their political future depends on an ass in a cell for every crime. That happens even here in Oregon, and we’re one of the best. In Republican controlled states, it’s far worse, such as the Republican hell hole that spawned Kris Kobitch. Kudos to JL A for the referral.
More than 1300 private conversations between a private prison’s inmates and their lawyers were recorded according to information in a new lawsuit against CoreCivic, the private company running the facility, and its technology provider Securus Technologies. Numerous charges and convictions against the inmates could ultimately be overturned if a judge finds prosecutors violated attorney-client privilege by listening to the recordings.
Securus, the company responsible for recording the calls, has already faced legal action for illegally taping communications.
The court filings describing the newly disclosed recordings follow another civil lawsuit and a long-running federal investigation into actions by the Kansas US Attorney’s Office that authorized the recordings. The civil suits seek at least $10 million in damages and demand the company cease recording confidential conversations.
The possibility of recording at the CoreCivic (formerly known as the Correction Corporations of America) pre-trial detention facility in Leavenworth first emerged in 2016 when footage of an attorney client meeting, subpoenaed by a grand jury in a prison drug smuggling case, came to light. Outcry from criminal attorneys that the recordings violated inmates’ 6th amendment rights prompted Kansas federal district court Judge Julie Robinson to order all detention facilities in Kansas and Missouri, including those run by CoreCivic, to cease recording any privileged conversations…
Inserted from <Mother Jones>
This isn’t the first time Securus has recorded calls for prosecutors. They got caught doing so in Texas in 2014.
When prosecutors knowingly violate defendants’ rights, the defendants should go free and the prosecutors should serve the same time. Until there are criminal consequences for criminal prosecutors, there will be no criminal justice.
RESIST!!
VOTE BLUE!!
7 Responses to “The Deck is Stacked”
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I’m going to share the comments I made at Mother Jones, including a reply and my counter-reply (and there are some other good ones there too.)
Since I honestly don’t believe that there should be only one Justice system (or Injustice system , or Just-us system), because states do have an investment here, I can see that the problems are complicated almost beyond belief. And all I can really do is go on saying that. People desperately want things to be simple.
This is horrible!
I am for the prosecutors who do these underhanded act(s)go to jail, and yes, the defendant should be released. I am certainly for that! Every prisoner, convicted or otherwise being detained has rights. Basic and human rights.
We scream and howl about injustice and tyranny in other countries, we condemn repressive regimes abroad – but in doing so we are the pot calling the kettle black, and in some cases the pot is even blacker.
We are just so exceptional, we believe, that we do not see our very own, home-grown hypocrisy!
My first reaction after finding my gob-smacked voice again was: “Only in America”, but as Freya has already pointed out, that’s far from true. I’m sure quite a few repressive regimes use and abuse this kind of criminal “justice”. And that is point in fact, isn’t it: they are repressive regimes.
Even though I am not a lawyer, I feel these after-conviction restrictions and added punishments are not delineated in any penal code.
Some of these actions are simply another means of controlling the vote.
Thanks, Hugs, and AMEN to all!