Thursday, July 5, 2007

a few more thoughts on judge walton's july 9 request. . .


a commenter below favorably-
mentioned my thoughts on the legal
arguments re 18 USC § 3583(a) release. . .

but to be honest, it was judge
walton's idea
-- i just re-
peated it, on the night of the
third, with some context. . .

i did notice that CHS
at firedoglake, a fine
lawyer, and former pro-
secutor, used almost
the same words
as i
did, offering "Shorter
Judge Walton: clean up your
own damned mess, George,
because I’m not covering for
you
. . ."
-- mine, of
tuesday, read "i mean the president
made this mess -- let him clean it all
up, seems a fair reading of judge
walton's footnote, of today. . .
" -- so,
that feels like good confirmation.

all of that said, j. at talkleft
points out that scooter gets credit
for the day he was booked into the
prison system, so he technically
has served one day. . .

she has to be right; she's an able
defense lawyer, and i bet that will
be lawrence robbins' position on
monday -- that scoots has served
a part of his sentence -- one day(!),
so he is eligible for 18 USC § 3583(a)
early release. . .

now, there are several other able
lawyers making various suggestions
that judge walton is allowed, by
statute -- 18 USC § 3583(e) -- to
impose conditions, like nights and
weekends in jail. . . but. . .

i sense those are non-starters, be-
cause they pretty plainly conflict
with the intent the president's plenary
commutation order evinced -- and he
said "no jail."

appellate criminal law whiz peter
goldberger had some thoughts on that,
over at talkleft, too. . .

so -- ahh, well -- drats.

have a happy long weekend!

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