Ruling by Judge William Young, US District Court.
“Shoe Bomber” Richard Reid was recently sentenced to 80 years in jail by Judge William Young in the US District Court. The Judge’s summing-up was splendid, but little reported. His language was reminiscent of the great founding documents of the USA. I thought it deserved a wider audience. In the interests of brevity, I have taken the liberty of shortening it a bit (though I have changed nothing).
Judge Young: ‘Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court imposes upon you.
On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the custody of the United States Attorney General. On counts 2, 3, 4 and 7, the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence on each count to run consecutively. (That’s 80 years.)
Now, let me explain this to you. We are not afraid of you or any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been through the fire before. There is too much war talk here and I say that to everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this court, we deal with individuals as individuals and care for individuals as individuals. As human beings, we reach out for justice.
You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether the officers of government do it or your attorney does it, or if you think you are a soldier, you are not. You are a terrorist. And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not meet with terrorists. We do not sign documents with terrorists. We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice.
So war talk is way out of line in this court. You are a big fellow. But you are not that big. You’re no warrior. I’ve known warriors. You are a terrorist. A species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted murders. In a very real sense, State Trooper Santiago had it right when you first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the press and the TV crews were, and he said: ‘You’re no big deal. ‘
You are no big deal.
What your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys have grappled with, and what I have as honestly as I know how tried to grapple with, is why you did something so horrific. What was it that led you here to this courtroom today?
It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You hate our freedom. Our individual freedom. Our individual freedom to live as we choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not believe as we individually choose. Here, in this society, the very wind carries freedom. It carries it everywhere from sea to shining sea. It is because we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful courtroom, so that everyone can see, truly see, that justice is administered fairly, individually, and discretely. It is for freedom’s sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your behalf, have filed appeals, will go on in their representation of you before other judges.
We Americans are all about freedom. Because we all know that the way we treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties. Make no mistake though. It is yet true that we will bear any burden; pay any price, to preserve our freedoms. Look around this courtroom. Mark it well. The world is not going to long remember what you or I say here. The day after tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however, will long endure.
Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America, the American people will gather to see that justice, individual justice, justice, not war, individual justice is in fact being done. The very President of the United States, through his officers, will have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged, and juries of citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence democratically, to mould and shape and refine our sense of justice.
See that flag, Mr. Reid? That’s the flag of the United States of America. That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag stands for freedom. And it always will.
Mr. Custody Officer. Stand him down.
Roger Helmer MEP 
Would make you proud if just once our politicos could stand up against the terrorist that we pander to by moving them to another house because their life is disrupted , stop spending our money to provide for legal aid, for people who would see us dead.
Merry Christmas one and all ….
How much would I savour similar words being spoken in a British court? I suppose that there’s little chance of that in our present day society when most judges, from the appeal courts to magistrates, seem almost on the point of apologising to criminals.
Oh to have some judges and justice of that calibre, Roger.
Seasonal greetings to everyone.
Be nice if even non terrorists such as Chris Huhme were dealt with, funny how that has been by-passed, and it then turns out that its the coppers that are bent and not the holier than thou effin Mitchel, the mere fact he used that language to a policeman would have had him in court had he not been in what is considered the higher echilons of society, all I can say is glad I am not in their cesspit. is it any wonder that people are sick to their back teeth with them …terrorists and their ilk all in the same class as far as I am concerned. one set bombs the place the other lot corrupt it.
Judge sounded like Abraham Lincoln reincarnated. I agree with the sentiments wishing for similar speeches in the UK.
However, I am trying to stick to my (just made) Christmas resolution not to get angry or despairing at least until January 1st.
Happy Christmas Roger and to one and all.
The British spirit of fairness, justice, and freedom has been suspended into a temporary state of animation by the enemy from within, do not presume that the people do not know who our enemy is! The people of the U.K. are stirring, and will take back to themselves all that was inherited to them by their forefathers!
As far as I’m concerned the British spirit of fairness, justice and freedom is a myth. No other country with a similar state pension scheme freezes the hard earned pensions of just 4% just because of where they live. For example a British pensioner in Canada has a frozen pension but the pensioner in the USA enjoys annual increases, some countries are frozen some are not, this injustice has been allowed to go on for sixty years! There are no politicians with enough of a backbone to demand and get an end to this ongoing theft and many of these pensioners live under the poverty line having been cheated out of thousands of pounds of their own money. Pensions are not a state handout, they are paid for out of our own money.
I hope Linda the last sentence in your comment is true.
Linda: As it happens, I agree with you. A bit tangential to the issue of terorism and American justice, though.
Thanks rfhmep. I guess as always, one thing leads to another!
LET ME WISH ONE AND ALL, A HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND NEWYEAR, AND LET LOVE CONQUER ALL!
Jane, agreed there is not much fairness and justice around, but that does not say it doesn’t burn deep in the hearts of the British people, true Brits are still the same as always, Its the alien forces, and their cultures, laws, bureaucracies, and diktats that is being allowed to flourish in our beloved country, all being signed, sealed, and delivererd for, by our own political elite!
Sadly Linda your reply to me is so true. Trouble is the true Brits will soon be a minority.
I would have dearly loved to have heard the judge give that summing up. The words were magnificent. Like another correspondent, I cannot conceive similar words being uttered by any of the present class of (Blair appointed) British judges.
So true Martin!
Great words.
What about extraordinary rendition?
What about Guantanamo Bay?
Where are the trials there?
Or, in this country, what about the Muslims held without trial for long periods?
I am in no way in favour of terrorism and, as a Catholic, I am in no way Muslim. But if you really believe – and I fervently do – in what the judge says, then what about the abject surrender of our legal system to Europe too?
We simply do not believe or practise what this excellent judge says and we must.
Our laws that have taken centuries to evolve, sadly where given up to a foreign power, and our unique hebeas corpus is on the way out, or might already be defunked,and replaced with the poor excuse of a justice system that of the Napoleionic, guilty untill proven innocent!