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Monday, March 21, 2005
Courts - In Courts, Threats Have Become a Fact of Life
The Sunday NY Times had a chilling front-page story headlined "In Courts, Threats Have Become a Fact of Life." The lengthy article begins:
Last March, a federal prosecutor in Utah overseeing a racketeering case against a dozen members of the Soldiers of Aryan Culture received a chilling threat."You stupid bitch!" the letter to the assistant United States attorney, who is an African-American woman, began. "It is because of you that my brothers are in jail." The letter went on to mention the prosecutor's home address, concluding, "We will get you." It was signed, "Till the casket drops."
After a second threat, a federal magistrate summoned the 12 defendants to a courtroom in Salt Lake City late last year and informed them that their family visits and telephone privileges would be suspended.
The men, who are accused of operating a violent criminal enterprise that peddles white supremacist ideology and methamphetamine inside and outside Utah's prisons, did not take the news well.
Seated in the jury box because they were too numerous to sit together at the defense table, the defendants were handcuffed and shackled. But this did not stop them from leaping to their feet, spewing profanity-laden protests, spitting, kicking and scuffling with more than a dozen United States marshals and court security officers.
It was not just another day in an American courtroom, but it was not an aberration either. Defendants act out. And threats against judges and prosecutors appear to be a regular, almost routine, part of courthouse life, not only in highly public emotional cases like that of Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman in Florida whose feeding tube was removed by court order on Friday, but in garden-variety disputes, too.
Only federal authorities keep a count of annual threats, but the 700 reported against federal judicial officials alone suggest that the total made against federal, state and local court officials is much larger.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 21, 2005 10:48 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts