Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Being Nilfonged!

Our judicial system was set up to protect the people, to bring justice to those that break the law, and to allow those that have grievances to obtain justice. Somewhere in the last 25 years, this system has broke down and and the system is being used by those that think only of power for themselves or to push their idealogical agenda. The Duke Rape case where DA Nilfong abused and bypassed the system to indict the three Duke La Crosse players so he could get reelected is a perfect example of this new "justice" system. Or here in Austin we have DA Ronnie Earle trying to prosecute Tom Delay for something that wasn't even a crime yet. Which brings me to this poor guy in Tampa who is being Nilfonged by the local DA.
TAMPA - An appeals court called the case against Mark O'Hara "absurd" and "ridiculous," but the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office is refusing to drop charges against the 45-year-old Dunedin man.

O'Hara appeared before Hillsborough Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta Wednesday morning, his first time in court since his release from prison July 25.

During the brief hearing, prosecutor Darrell Dirks indicated his office plans to pursue a second trial for O'Hara, who was accused of drug trafficking after authorities found 58 Vicodin pills in his bread truck. He had legal prescriptions for the drugs.

....

O'Hara spent two years of a 25-year sentence in prison after a jury found him guilty of trafficking in hydrocone. He was arrested by Tampa International Airport police in 2004 after they found the Vicodin and a small amount of marijuana in his illegally parked bread truck.

O'Hara didn't contest the marijuana charge, which netted 67 days in jail. However, he swore he had a prescription for the pills. A doctor and a pharmacist backed him up at trial. But jurors weren't told that it is legal to possess the drug with a prescription.

In July, the 2nd District Court of Appeal overturned O'Hara's conviction.

How can this guy obtain justice when the jury isn't told that it is legal to possess Vicodin or that they were proscribed by a doctor? How can the DA blatantly ignore the testimonies of the doctor and pharmacist? And how can the DA go ahead with another trial when the first one was thrown out for being "absurb"?

This guy is getting Nilfonged and the system needs to step in and correct the probelm with the DA before more innocent people are screwed by him.

Nilfong was not a rare problem in the system, it is happening all over the US, and it is the results of a broken system whose checks and balanced are skewed or non existent.

How can you trust the system when it is no longer is acting in the best interest of the people, but acting for those in the system themselves?

I can't.


Mr Minority

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