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US Attorney denied murdered BP agent's family are victims in gunwalker case
In the ongoing prosecutions of the Gunwalker straw men and conspirators, the family of murdered Border Patrol Agent Terry has filed for status as victims, and the local U.S. Attorney opposed their filing. The argument appears to be that GCA violations are victimless crimes, hence no one can be a victim of one, even if they get killed as a result of it.
Looking over the statute on victim rights, I can't see much practical reason for the opposition. A victim gets notice of court proceedings (which their attorney could pull up anyway), can rarely be excluded from the courtroom, and has a few other rights of little importance to the government here. I'd guess the rationale for the objection was one of impressions: the government doesn't want the Terry family seen as a victim of Gunwalker. But you'd think whoever made that call would have realized (1) they are already seen as a victim of Gunwalker and (2) what about the impression your opposition is going to make?
· BATFE
Comments
Of course they denied the victims their victim status.
As far as Holder is concerned, no crime was committed. This was all just informants getting a bit uppity.
Ordering thousands of unlawful firearms to be sold to criminals was just good police work, and had nothing to do with setting the Reichstag on fire.
Posted by: Kristopher at August 12, 2011 08:37 AM