Of Arms and the Law

Navigation
About Me
Contact Me
Archives
XML Feed
Home


Law Review Articles
Firearm Owner's Protection Act
Armed Citizens, Citizen Armies
2nd Amendment & Historiography
The Lecture Notes of St. George Tucker
Original Popular Understanding of the 14th Amendment
Originalism and its Tools


2nd Amendment Discussions

1982 Senate Judiciary Comm. Report
2004 Dept of Justice Report
US v. Emerson (5th Cir. 2001)

Click here to join the NRA (or renew your membership) online! Special discount: annual membership $25 (reg. $35) for a great magazine and benefits.

Recommended Websites
Ammo.com, deals on ammunition
Scopesfield: rifle scope guide
Ohioans for Concealed Carry
Clean Up ATF (heartburn for headquarters)
Concealed Carry Today
Knives Infinity, blades of all types
Buckeye Firearms Association
NFA Owners' Association
Leatherman Multi-tools And Knives
The Nuge Board
Dave Kopel
Steve Halbrook
Gunblog community
Dave Hardy
Bardwell's NFA Page
2nd Amendment Documentary
Clayton Cramer
Constitutional Classics
Law Reviews
NRA news online
Sporting Outdoors blog
Blogroll
Instapundit
Upland Feathers
Instapunk
Volokh Conspiracy
Alphecca
Gun Rights
Gun Trust Lawyer NFA blog
The Big Bore Chronicles
Good for the Country
Knife Rights.org
Geeks with Guns
Hugh Hewitt
How Appealing
Moorewatch
Moorelies
The Price of Liberty
Search
Email Subscription
Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

 

Credits
Powered by Movable Type 6.8.3
Site Design by Sekimori

« Wall St. Journal takes on Solicitor General's brief | Main | I suppose there's one comfort for the Solicitor General »

DC gun law in action

Posted by David Hardy · 23 January 2008 09:59 AM

WashPo has the story. Second offender arrested with guns. Prosecutor in a typo doesn't list his name in the criminal complaint, court says rewrite it and come back in the morning. In the morning there's a failure to coordinate, officer is doing the paperwork but doesn't know court wants it now. Rather than wait, the court dismisses the charge.

New charges are filed, but before the guy can be found, he kills someone.

5 Comments | Leave a comment

Letalis Maximus, Esq. | January 23, 2008 10:37 AM | Reply

And this is why judges have absolute immunity.

mostlygenius | January 23, 2008 11:39 AM | Reply

Looking at it from the defendants point of view, how long should you have to stew while the state gets it's act together?

My guess is that this was a judicial temper tantrum because the state wasn't squared away.

It sucks that criminals get released when they shouldn't be, but it also sucks when people become part of the system and the deck is stacked against them.

Madrocketscientist | January 23, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply

I'm gonna split the difference here. No, the judge should not have released the defendants because he was miffed at the tardiness. A little discretion may have been called for. However, if the DA and the Police felt the defendants were such a threat, they should have hustled their ass to get the paperwork fixed. Everyone knew the timeline that had to be worked within. Assuming the judge will grant an extension is a bit of a gamble.

Letalis Maximus, Esq. | January 23, 2008 3:48 PM | Reply

Look, there is plenty of blame to go around. The criminal justice system is a joke and everybody involved knows it. Too many perps, not enough money to process them, not enough good employees, most of the people in the system are basically badly paid clericals, the clericals system in D.C. is a tragedy (you go live there on a GS-7/9 salary), etc. etc. etc. In DC, good attorneys are almost fungible, but good support staff are hard to find.

Look at the bright side, the person who got killed probably needed killing.

Harry Schell | January 24, 2008 11:23 AM | Reply

I don't think this has anything to do with the gun ban except that criminals can easily get weapons when they want.

The other story is the incompetence of the DC law enforcement system, from LEO's to courts, in dealing with violent felons. Such behavior goes unpunished to much, so that few offenders "see the light" and decide to change their path.

And the judges seem to think this is fine.

I suppose we eventually will get to the point of the UK where self-defense is a prosecutable offense and parole is denied to people who are a "menace to burglars" (the Tony Martine case).

Orwell was an optimist...

Leave a comment