The Bonfire of the Vanities; Angela Corey's Prosecutorial Malfeasance
Timothy Birdnow
The Special Prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin case has issued an indictment for Murder in the Second Degree, and this has many legal analysts puzzled; the burden of proof is high, necessitating a "depraved state of mind" with purposeful action to kill the victim - something that everyone agrees cannot be proven in the case of "white hispanic" George Zimmerman. Former Prosecutor Andrew McCarthy argues that the affadavit of probable cause put out by prosecutor Angela Corey to indict Zimmerman amounts to prosecutorial malfeasance http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/295997/martin-case-affidavit-andrew-c-mccarthy and Liberal Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz refered to the indictment as "irresponsible and unethical". Unless Corey has some evidence that has not appeared in the media it appears she has seriously overreached; a manslaughter charge seemed the most likely to succeed in this instance.
Corey skipped the grand jury process, a sign of relative weakness for her indictments.
This case has bothered me from the beginning; the media suddenly latched onto it and the reporting was unanimous and ubiquitous, with the same cherubic 4 year old photo of Martin as a boy, with the same credulous acceptance of Zimmerman's guilt, with the same narrative. It resembled the Tom Wolfe novel "Bonfire of the Vanities" with civil rights hucksters screaming for Zimmerman's blood, with the coining of the phrase "white hispanic", with claims that this "good kid" was merely walking to see his father after visiting a candy store. As others - particularly those not in the media - began digging into the case it appeared less like the morality play being produced by the media. Doubts began creeping in; suggestions that Martin may have been involved in drugs, tweets involving foul and abusive language, school suspensions, suggestions of burglary. Martin, the model child, began looking more like a street thug. And the physical evidence backed up Zimmerman's claim to have been assaulted - as did an eyewitness. The police failed to charge him precisely because of these very facts, not out of some racist hatred of all things African-American, as the race hustlers have vociferously asserted.
Yet the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Soetero Obama - came out early on and said that if he had a son he would look like Trayvon Martin.
The same Barack Hussein Soetero Obama is in the political fight of his life in a desperate attempt to be re-elected despite abyssmal polling numbers.
It is interesting that this case was dying a dull death with little public attention after a couple of months, then suddenly took off in the media. Coincidence? Mr. Obama needs the black community to turn out in force in November, and a racially divisive issue is just the ticket to draw them out. Of course, this also takes attention away from an economy that has been essentially Zimmermanized by Obama. It was the reason the Democrats (starting with ABC's George Stephanopoulis' question during the Presidential debates about banning birth control) created this phony "war on women"; to draw out the female vote, to make women think the GOP will force them to be barefoot and pregnant. The Martin case has a fortuitously similar effect with the black population.
What I was struck by was the reaction to the appointment of Angela Corey as Special Prosecutor in this case; the reaction from the Left was generally quite warm, something that I find quite disturbing. The notoriously liberal CNN had high praise for Miss Corey http://articles.cnn.com/2012-04-10/justice/justice_florida-teen-shooting-prosecutor_1_michael-hallett-
controversial-prosecutor-state-attorney?_s=PM:JUSTICE and even the good people at Democratic Underground were pleased with her selection http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002549204. When these groups are happy about a Republican appointee in a case like this warning bells should go off. I am mindfull of Patrick Fitzgerald, the Chicago-based prosecutor described by the media as "a prosecutor's prosecutor"; he was universally praised when he was put in charge of the Valerie Plame investigation, and he failed to bring charges in that case but slammed the President and his administtration in a public spectacle. He was then put in charge of the Blagoyavitch/Tony Rezko investigation, and he rushed to indict the principles as the trail began leading to our dear fearless leader. President Obama's hands were all over that issue, with his manuevering to get Blagoyavitch to appoint his toady Valerie Jarrett, and of course he was thick as thieves with Rezko. The premature indictments essentially shut the investigation down, protecting Barack Obama from where this might have led. The media was always pleased as punch with Fitzgerald.
And their reaction to Corey has been much the same. Now, why is that?
I don't know. I did some digging, but I am not an investigative journalist and there is nothing I could find on the web. But this smells.
Angela Corey is notorious for being an overagressive prosecutor. She once prosecuted a 12 year old child as an adult, for instance, the youngest in Florida history. She is known for trumping charges in the hopes of frightening the defendents into pleading to a lesser charge, but a stronger charge than she has evidence to obtain otherwise. She often skips grand juries because they would not hand her the indictments she covets. Her counties have the highest incarceration rates in Florida.
In fact, there is a petition against her floating around out there. Here is the meat of the petition:
"http://www.change.org/petitions/remove-angela-corey-from-office
Angela Corey is using her power as the State Attorney of the Fourth Judicial Circuit to prosecute every
case that enters her office, despite the severity of the crime commited and with grave disregard to the
facts of each case. Under the guise of being "Tough on Crime", her office pushes for maximum sentences
with disregard to sentencing guidelines established by the State of Florida. Using her power and position,
she pressures Judges, her Prosecutors, and the County Sheriffs in the Fourth Judicial Circuit to carry out
her tactics, to include lying in court to secure a prosecution as in the Kenitra Casper case. She view
fair trials for the people as second to her prosecution and time given statistics.
Angela Corey’s Tactics:
· Push for long prison sentences for first-time offenders of non-violent crimes.
· Setting extremely high bonds, making bail impossible for the average citizen, despite the crime
committed.
· Ignoring Department of Corrections sentencing recommendations and State sentencing guidelines.
· Pushing her own Prosecutors to pursue cases that they know are not worthy of prosecution.
· Stacking every possible frivolous charge against defendants to make minor offenses seem major,
thus, justifying long prison time.
· Although Angela Corey pushes for harsh punishment for first-time, non-violent offenders in
general, from our research so far, there is a greater disparity between punishment and treatment of people
from minority groups versus Caucasians. We hate pulling the race card, but the facts support it thus far.
We still are fighting for all people of all races as this is a human rights issue.
· Getting the County Sheriffs, County Judges, and Public Defenders to team with her, together,
they can do whatever they want within the justice system. This cuts out fair trials for the people and
renders Trial Attorneys worthless because no matter what argument an attorney presents, facts presented,
or allegations disproved, the final decision will be what Angela Corey wants, this equates to injustice
and corruption at the highest levels in State and local governments.
Since taking office, the prosecution rate in the Fourth Judicial District of Florida has skyrocketed. We
all want true criminals prosecuted and put away, but Angela Corey takes every case that enters her office
to levels that are unwarranted, excessive, and in many cases, illegal.
The cases are mounting and the jails and prisons in Florida are being filled with people that have
committed minor crimes that have been exaggerated by Angela Corey as a way to make it seem her Office is
taking a really tough stance on crime. What she is really doing, with the assistance of the Sheriffs
Office and Judges in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, is locking up innocent people along with criminals just
to increase her statistics for the number of years (in prison time) she has given out. She boast these
facts as part of her election campaign."
End excerpt.
Now, being a tough prosecutor does not make her an unfair one, nor is it necessarily a bad thing; too many criminals get let off too easy, and that is part of the problem in modern America. Criminals know they can act with impunity these days. But prosecuting a perhaps overzealous neighborhood watch volunteer who was defending himself seems to contradict everything that this particular prosecutor stands for. If Miss Corey really cares about the victims of crime she would not go after this particular case so aggressively.
But there are enormous political pressures being brought to bear. Also, who knows what political promises are being made. Nobody outside of the Jacksonville area knew who Angela Corey was until now; it is rather like the O.J. Simpson trial, with the largely incompetent prosecution springboarding the media coverage into some sweet gigs. Doubtless Miss Corey will find a way to do likewise.
A manslaughter charge - or no charge at all - would put Miss Corey out of the limelight.
I don't believe this is all there is to it; I fear there are pieces of the puzzle missing here. This case is going to drag on until late in the political season, and it will be entirely beneficial to Obama and the Democrats. I am not one to believe in fortuitous coincidences, especially where the Chicago political machine is concerned. I smell a rat.
Racial politics of the most odious and despicable sort are not new to the Democratic Party; James Byrde adds, or the adds in Missouri saying "when you don't turn out to vote another black church burns" were run to help Bill Clinton win re-election (Clinton likewise was in political trouble, but the weak-as-water Bob Dull, er, Dole gave him a handy victory as well might Mitt Romney). The African American community is one of the pillars of the Democratic electoral strategy, and they cannot win without them. That was why it was so important to destroy Herman Cain in the GOP primary; he would have split the black vote. The most despicable accusations were made against Mr. Cain to destroy him. The black community BELIEVES the Democrats are their friends, but the reality is they are interested in using them as "useful idiots" every election cycle. Every policy advocated by the Democrats does nothing but cement the black community into the bottom tier of American socio-economic life. It is a plantation, for certain, with no hope of upward mobility except as a race hustler.
And so the Democrats have gone back to the well of racial hatred for yet another helping.
And Angela Corey is falling right into their spider's web. She has donated to GOP candidates in the past, so she is not a liberal, but why is she doing this? Something does not smell right. I wonder about her personal finances, for instance.
And this is setting up an explosion that will likely hit at the most inopportune time politically for the GOP. Already, there are murmurs on the left side of the blogosphere that the prosecution purposely overreached to throw the case. http://sandrarose.com/2012/04/is-angela-corey-sabotaging-the-trayvon-martin-murder-case/
Granted, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't, but if that is the case, why not just do the right thing? Angela Corey is no dummy; she has to know her case is weak as water - unless there is something we know nothing about lurking in the tall grass. But I find that hard to believe, given the scrutiny that has of the tragic events of that day.
No, I think politics is involved here. I just wish I could uncover the smoking gun.
Keep your eyes wide open, folks; this is going to be one wild ride.
The Special Prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin case has issued an indictment for Murder in the Second Degree, and this has many legal analysts puzzled; the burden of proof is high, necessitating a "depraved state of mind" with purposeful action to kill the victim - something that everyone agrees cannot be proven in the case of "white hispanic" George Zimmerman. Former Prosecutor Andrew McCarthy argues that the affadavit of probable cause put out by prosecutor Angela Corey to indict Zimmerman amounts to prosecutorial malfeasance http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/295997/martin-case-affidavit-andrew-c-mccarthy and Liberal Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz refered to the indictment as "irresponsible and unethical". Unless Corey has some evidence that has not appeared in the media it appears she has seriously overreached; a manslaughter charge seemed the most likely to succeed in this instance.
Corey skipped the grand jury process, a sign of relative weakness for her indictments.
This case has bothered me from the beginning; the media suddenly latched onto it and the reporting was unanimous and ubiquitous, with the same cherubic 4 year old photo of Martin as a boy, with the same credulous acceptance of Zimmerman's guilt, with the same narrative. It resembled the Tom Wolfe novel "Bonfire of the Vanities" with civil rights hucksters screaming for Zimmerman's blood, with the coining of the phrase "white hispanic", with claims that this "good kid" was merely walking to see his father after visiting a candy store. As others - particularly those not in the media - began digging into the case it appeared less like the morality play being produced by the media. Doubts began creeping in; suggestions that Martin may have been involved in drugs, tweets involving foul and abusive language, school suspensions, suggestions of burglary. Martin, the model child, began looking more like a street thug. And the physical evidence backed up Zimmerman's claim to have been assaulted - as did an eyewitness. The police failed to charge him precisely because of these very facts, not out of some racist hatred of all things African-American, as the race hustlers have vociferously asserted.
Yet the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Soetero Obama - came out early on and said that if he had a son he would look like Trayvon Martin.
The same Barack Hussein Soetero Obama is in the political fight of his life in a desperate attempt to be re-elected despite abyssmal polling numbers.
It is interesting that this case was dying a dull death with little public attention after a couple of months, then suddenly took off in the media. Coincidence? Mr. Obama needs the black community to turn out in force in November, and a racially divisive issue is just the ticket to draw them out. Of course, this also takes attention away from an economy that has been essentially Zimmermanized by Obama. It was the reason the Democrats (starting with ABC's George Stephanopoulis' question during the Presidential debates about banning birth control) created this phony "war on women"; to draw out the female vote, to make women think the GOP will force them to be barefoot and pregnant. The Martin case has a fortuitously similar effect with the black population.
What I was struck by was the reaction to the appointment of Angela Corey as Special Prosecutor in this case; the reaction from the Left was generally quite warm, something that I find quite disturbing. The notoriously liberal CNN had high praise for Miss Corey http://articles.cnn.com/2012-04-10/justice/justice_florida-teen-shooting-prosecutor_1_michael-hallett-
controversial-prosecutor-state-attorney?_s=PM:JUSTICE and even the good people at Democratic Underground were pleased with her selection http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002549204. When these groups are happy about a Republican appointee in a case like this warning bells should go off. I am mindfull of Patrick Fitzgerald, the Chicago-based prosecutor described by the media as "a prosecutor's prosecutor"; he was universally praised when he was put in charge of the Valerie Plame investigation, and he failed to bring charges in that case but slammed the President and his administtration in a public spectacle. He was then put in charge of the Blagoyavitch/Tony Rezko investigation, and he rushed to indict the principles as the trail began leading to our dear fearless leader. President Obama's hands were all over that issue, with his manuevering to get Blagoyavitch to appoint his toady Valerie Jarrett, and of course he was thick as thieves with Rezko. The premature indictments essentially shut the investigation down, protecting Barack Obama from where this might have led. The media was always pleased as punch with Fitzgerald.
And their reaction to Corey has been much the same. Now, why is that?
I don't know. I did some digging, but I am not an investigative journalist and there is nothing I could find on the web. But this smells.
Angela Corey is notorious for being an overagressive prosecutor. She once prosecuted a 12 year old child as an adult, for instance, the youngest in Florida history. She is known for trumping charges in the hopes of frightening the defendents into pleading to a lesser charge, but a stronger charge than she has evidence to obtain otherwise. She often skips grand juries because they would not hand her the indictments she covets. Her counties have the highest incarceration rates in Florida.
In fact, there is a petition against her floating around out there. Here is the meat of the petition:
"http://www.change.org/petitions/remove-angela-corey-from-office
Angela Corey is using her power as the State Attorney of the Fourth Judicial Circuit to prosecute every
case that enters her office, despite the severity of the crime commited and with grave disregard to the
facts of each case. Under the guise of being "Tough on Crime", her office pushes for maximum sentences
with disregard to sentencing guidelines established by the State of Florida. Using her power and position,
she pressures Judges, her Prosecutors, and the County Sheriffs in the Fourth Judicial Circuit to carry out
her tactics, to include lying in court to secure a prosecution as in the Kenitra Casper case. She view
fair trials for the people as second to her prosecution and time given statistics.
Angela Corey’s Tactics:
· Push for long prison sentences for first-time offenders of non-violent crimes.
· Setting extremely high bonds, making bail impossible for the average citizen, despite the crime
committed.
· Ignoring Department of Corrections sentencing recommendations and State sentencing guidelines.
· Pushing her own Prosecutors to pursue cases that they know are not worthy of prosecution.
· Stacking every possible frivolous charge against defendants to make minor offenses seem major,
thus, justifying long prison time.
· Although Angela Corey pushes for harsh punishment for first-time, non-violent offenders in
general, from our research so far, there is a greater disparity between punishment and treatment of people
from minority groups versus Caucasians. We hate pulling the race card, but the facts support it thus far.
We still are fighting for all people of all races as this is a human rights issue.
· Getting the County Sheriffs, County Judges, and Public Defenders to team with her, together,
they can do whatever they want within the justice system. This cuts out fair trials for the people and
renders Trial Attorneys worthless because no matter what argument an attorney presents, facts presented,
or allegations disproved, the final decision will be what Angela Corey wants, this equates to injustice
and corruption at the highest levels in State and local governments.
Since taking office, the prosecution rate in the Fourth Judicial District of Florida has skyrocketed. We
all want true criminals prosecuted and put away, but Angela Corey takes every case that enters her office
to levels that are unwarranted, excessive, and in many cases, illegal.
The cases are mounting and the jails and prisons in Florida are being filled with people that have
committed minor crimes that have been exaggerated by Angela Corey as a way to make it seem her Office is
taking a really tough stance on crime. What she is really doing, with the assistance of the Sheriffs
Office and Judges in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, is locking up innocent people along with criminals just
to increase her statistics for the number of years (in prison time) she has given out. She boast these
facts as part of her election campaign."
End excerpt.
Now, being a tough prosecutor does not make her an unfair one, nor is it necessarily a bad thing; too many criminals get let off too easy, and that is part of the problem in modern America. Criminals know they can act with impunity these days. But prosecuting a perhaps overzealous neighborhood watch volunteer who was defending himself seems to contradict everything that this particular prosecutor stands for. If Miss Corey really cares about the victims of crime she would not go after this particular case so aggressively.
But there are enormous political pressures being brought to bear. Also, who knows what political promises are being made. Nobody outside of the Jacksonville area knew who Angela Corey was until now; it is rather like the O.J. Simpson trial, with the largely incompetent prosecution springboarding the media coverage into some sweet gigs. Doubtless Miss Corey will find a way to do likewise.
A manslaughter charge - or no charge at all - would put Miss Corey out of the limelight.
I don't believe this is all there is to it; I fear there are pieces of the puzzle missing here. This case is going to drag on until late in the political season, and it will be entirely beneficial to Obama and the Democrats. I am not one to believe in fortuitous coincidences, especially where the Chicago political machine is concerned. I smell a rat.
Racial politics of the most odious and despicable sort are not new to the Democratic Party; James Byrde adds, or the adds in Missouri saying "when you don't turn out to vote another black church burns" were run to help Bill Clinton win re-election (Clinton likewise was in political trouble, but the weak-as-water Bob Dull, er, Dole gave him a handy victory as well might Mitt Romney). The African American community is one of the pillars of the Democratic electoral strategy, and they cannot win without them. That was why it was so important to destroy Herman Cain in the GOP primary; he would have split the black vote. The most despicable accusations were made against Mr. Cain to destroy him. The black community BELIEVES the Democrats are their friends, but the reality is they are interested in using them as "useful idiots" every election cycle. Every policy advocated by the Democrats does nothing but cement the black community into the bottom tier of American socio-economic life. It is a plantation, for certain, with no hope of upward mobility except as a race hustler.
And so the Democrats have gone back to the well of racial hatred for yet another helping.
And Angela Corey is falling right into their spider's web. She has donated to GOP candidates in the past, so she is not a liberal, but why is she doing this? Something does not smell right. I wonder about her personal finances, for instance.
And this is setting up an explosion that will likely hit at the most inopportune time politically for the GOP. Already, there are murmurs on the left side of the blogosphere that the prosecution purposely overreached to throw the case. http://sandrarose.com/2012/04/is-angela-corey-sabotaging-the-trayvon-martin-murder-case/
Granted, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't, but if that is the case, why not just do the right thing? Angela Corey is no dummy; she has to know her case is weak as water - unless there is something we know nothing about lurking in the tall grass. But I find that hard to believe, given the scrutiny that has of the tragic events of that day.
No, I think politics is involved here. I just wish I could uncover the smoking gun.
Keep your eyes wide open, folks; this is going to be one wild ride.
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 6:28 AM
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