This is the official email newsletter of the Zero Aggression Project and DownsizeDC.org, Inc. You are receiving this message (at DrEdelstein@ThreeMinuteTherapy.com) because you subscribed, signed one of our petitions, or wrote Congress using our Educate the Powerful System.
We signed seven amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court from May through September. I’m behind in telling you about these briefs, but I'll begin correcting that today, starting with Kaley v U.S.
Here are the issues...
Can a grand jury be the means by which your property is seized?
Can the means you'd use to pay for your defense be taken from you, based on a mere indictment?
There are two things to know...
First, there are only six federal crimes under the Constitution...
Counterfeiting
Piracies
Crimes in DC
Bribery of a federal official
Treason
Necessary and proper provisions to enforce tax laws and postal crimes
But our brief demonstrated how Congress has expanded from this 6 to more than 10,000 federal "crimes!" Worse, many of these "crimes" require no criminal intent to establish guilt.
Second, the courts pretend that Grand Juries protect citizens. But our brief was able to list five cases where the Supreme Court itself admitted that Grand Juries no longer serve the function they once did. We also documented the following facts...
Federal Rules of Evidence do not apply
Grand juries are conducted by or for prosecutors only
Neither witnesses nor targets have legal representation
Grand jury targets, even if they make a request, may not get to testify
Jurors can act on tips or rumors
As a result...
Grand Juries have no power to prevent prosecutors from using a mere indictment as an excuse to seize property
And once a defendant loses his or her property, he or she may no longer have the resources to mount a defense
This often allows prosecutors to force defendants to make deals
So much for innocent until proven guilty!
The results speak for themselves. The conviction rate is 91.6% on federal "crimes." 97.6% of these "convictions" were actually guilty pleas. Many of these pleas happened because the defendants could no longer resist after their assets were seized.
How did we arrive at this point? After all, the First Congress prohibited "forfeiture of estate" for any federal crime.
Step One: 1970
a) The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO.
b) The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act
These two Nixon-era laws undid 180 years of legal precedent. They both devised a scheme for the seizure of assets.
Step Two: 1984
Reagan-era amendments to the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act permitted one-sided, prosecutor-requested seizure.
Asset forfeiture, once used for drugs, soon found its way to other areas. It turned out to be a revenue source for the Feds.
The Supreme Court needs to stop pretending that grand juries are sufficiently rigorous to determine whether or not an indicted party's assets should be confiscated. Specifically, we argued in our brief that...
The Grand Jury system is woefully insufficient to protect the assets of the accused
Most federal crimes are un-Constitutional — they shouldn't be crimes
Defendants need resources to defend themselves, and they deserve the ability to defend against the taking of their property
The Supreme Court heard the case October 16. You can read the entire brief, here: http://www.downsizedc.org/blog-content/kaley-v-us-gof-amicus-brief.pdf
In fact, I hope you do read it. Because I think it will increase the odds that you'll support the efforts of the Downsize DC Foundation.
Tax-deductible contributions, from people like you, make it possible for us to educate the powerful people in robes, along with an extended audience of court watchers.
Please make a generous donation, today.
Jim Babka
President
Downsize DC Foundation
t h e C o n s e n t C h r o n i c l e
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The Zero Aggression Project exposes the criminal violence initiated by The State and promotes the Zero Aggression Principle as the alternative. DownsizeDC.org, Inc. is dedicated to withdrawing consent from State criminality. These are non-profit, public education organizations with operations at: 1931 15th St., Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44223, 202*521*1200. The Consent Chronicle normally publishes four times per week.
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