Ted Rall for March 27, 2015

Cool. The Daily News stated that those 47 crackpot Republican senators are traitors.

What makes you think that prosecutions for treason are any more reliable than prosecutions for capital crimes? Unfortunately, far too many prosecutors are more interested in convictions than they are in justice.

These travesties keep popping up. Along with eliminating the death penalty, how about a review of convictions every few years? After all, life in prison is tantamount to a slow-motion execution. And none of this, “don’t confuse me with the facts” craziness, either, like in that Texass case.

"As someone that has passed through the military legal system (got caught with a little weed 25 years ago on base), I can tell you that it is much more fair than our civilian system. "You might have found it far in your case, but certainly not in every case. The military has, at least in the past, a habit of covering up crime to ward off bad press.

flyingflowerpot said, about 1 hour agoDo you have to pay taxes on legal awards like this? How much did the lawyers get? 39 years is already a life sentence. I bet no one apologized to Mr. Jackson either. No one ever takes responsibility. It’s easier to blame the system. I really disliked the second panel. The bailiff’s (?) comments weren’t funny; they were flippant in a bad way.@The definition of treason is interesting. Recently, some teens in Sweden were charged with “treason” for throwing a cream-cake at the King of Sweden. Treason? I don’t have the link, but it’s probably not hard to find.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — A Swedish court has convicted four teenagers of high treason for throwing a cream cake at King Carl Gustaf.

The four, all aged 16 or 17, were fined in what was the first Swedish treason case in living memory, Sweden’s TT news agency said.

In a protest against the monarchy, the youngsters had assembled a strawberry cream cake before one of them threw it in the king’s face shouting “For King and Fatherland” during a royal visit to a Swedish park in September.

The court fined the boys between 80 days’ and 100 days’ income each, which legal sources said would equate to a maximum fine of about 4,000 crowns ($370). They were also convicted of minor assault.

=Cream-cake treason? Seriously?

This is much different than death or 30years hard labor in Leavenworth for “high treason”.

and here in oregon a man spent 2 years in prison, because he was a “material witness.”

@echoravenYou are obviously not from anywhere near NYC. The Daily News is substantially right of center in most of its views and is not a fan of Obama. In their edition which referred to the 47 numbnuts as traitors they explicitly stated that they did not support negotiations with Iran about nuclear power. It would have taken less than a minute to discover this on the ‘Net. Do your homework before you make yourself appear to be a dim bulb. It’s not rocket science. I am not a fan of Obama. He is just another tool of the rich and powerful and one more war pig in a long series of war pig presidents.

@logicalnotDid anyone ever tell you that you talk too much? 14 of 26 posts either by you or at you. If you are going to try to dominate the conversation at least say something worth hearing. Why are you so arrogant as to think that your run in with the UCMJ is representative of the entire system? How do you know how many military prosecutors are motivated by a desire for justice rather than a desire for a promotion?When I was in the Army we used to say that the recruits that scored lowest on the entry aptitude tests became military policeman and cooks. We also used to say that the recruits that couldn’t pass the tests and make it into the Army could always join the Marines. The true function of the Marines has always been to buy enough time by dying in the initial invasion for the Army to come in and win the war.

Come on. This is America. This is 2015. If I do that, then you’ll expect me to address the issues in a respectful and intelligent manner.

It had nothing to do with forensics. He, and two others, were convicted on the testimony of a 12 year old who recently recanted.

Check out www.deathpenaltyproject.org.

Ah, the breathtaking arrogance of those on the right who presume that they define the political debate in this country. My opinion is not the same as yours so I don’t know what I’m talking about. The truth is yours and ignorance is my fate. If you think the Daily News is left of center it is obvious where your center lies, BTW, left, right and center should not be capitalized. Learn how to write.

They should have hit him with a bill for past room, board and medical care— since he wasn’t actually guilty, he was taking government assistance under false pretenses.