Elena Sassower First Amendment Rights

[Guest guest]

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/632401663

 

PETITION TO FREE ELENA, D.C. PRISONER# 301-340

PETITION TO FREE ELENA, D.C. PRISONER# 301-340,

 

DC Court of Appeals, President George Bush, Attorney General

John Ashcroft, Senator Orrin Hatch, Chairman Senate Judiciary Committee,

Senator Patrick Leahy (Ranking Democrat) and other Senate Judiciary

Committee Members, Senators Charles Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Saxby

Chambliss, Tom Daschle, Bill Frist, John C. Keeney, Jr., President DC

Bar, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Congresswoman Eleanor Norton, Michael

S. Greco, President, American Bar Association.

cc.: The Media

 

WE, the undersigned, are outraged by the cruel and inhuman punishment of

New Yorker Elena Ruth Sassower, Co-Founder and Coordinator of the Center

of Judicial Accountability, Inc., teacher and youth leader. Convinced of

the gross injustice done her for asking to testify in opposition at a

Senate Judiciary Committee Judicial Confirmation Public Hearing, and

petition the DC Court of Appeals for these reasons:

 

WHEREAS, after quietly waiting through two hours of speeches in favor of

one of President Bush's judicial nominees, and on the Chairman gaveling

down an adjournment of the hearing without asking if anyone present

wished to be heard, Elena Sassower rose and respectfully said " Mr.

Chairman, there's citizen opposition to Judge Wesley based on his

documented corruption as a New York Court of Appeals judge. May I

testify? No sooner were the words out of her mouth, than the DC Capitol

Police handcuffed, arrested and incarcerated her for 21 hours. She was

then prosecuted by the DC U.S. Attorney on a misdemeanor criminal charge

of " Disruption of Congress " and nearly a year later convicted in a trial

before a lower court judge who denied her a fair trial.

 

WHEREAS, notwithstanding that the prosecuting U.S. Attorney and the

court's own Probation Services both recommended NO jail time, and the

Probation pre-sentence report recognized Elena Sassower as " an

individual dedicated to reform and accountability through activism, " who

" feels that she had been unfairly persecuted, " and would not benefit

from incarceration rehabilitation services, the lower court judge

sentenced her to three months in jail, plus the maximum of $750 in total

fines, despite the fact that her conviction of " Disruption of Congress, "

involved assertion of a First Amendment free speech right and involved a

non-violent, non felony crime,

 

WHEREAS, we are shocked that the lower court judge DOUBLED Elena's jail

sentence from three months to the MAXIMUM OF SIX MONTHS, because she

would not accept his long list of unconstitutional, immoral, and

humiliating conditions to her release on probation. These included being

placed on probation for two years, during which period she would have

been required to " stay away from and inside the US Capitol complex of 16

national sites, surrounding streets, and two nearby mass transit

locations; cease all electronic, verbal and other communications with

Senator Orrin Hatch, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator

Patrick Leahy [ranking Democrat on the Committee], Senator Saxby

Chambliss [who presided over the Committee Public Hearing as to Judge

Richard Wesley], and other Senators and named staffers, including as to

matters relating to her arrest, her home state NY Senators Clinton and

Schumer who had supported Judge Wesley's nomination; keep daily time

records of all her activities as Coordinator of the CJA in tenths of an

hour; do 300 hours of community service, 100 in the District of

Columbia, " under no circumstances will CJA work or related activities

satisfy this requirement " ; abstain from all illegal drugs, and submit to

substance abuse, medical and mental health testing, as well as anger

management therapy.

 

WHEREAS, the lower court judge denied Elena Sassower her constitutional

right to be heard with respect to her sentence, it amounts to " cruel and

inhuman " punishment. His refusal to stay her sentence pending appeal

flies in the face of established law, practice, and her due

process/equal protection rights.

 

WHEREAS, the judge was a new appointee of President Bush to the DC

Superior Court bench, nominated at age 46, with no prior judicial or

criminal trial experience, whose protection of the government was actual

and apparent, his failure to grant Elena Sassower's request for his

recusal and change of venue to the DC U.S. District Court, where the

case was properly triable, denied Elena. Sassower her right to a fair

trial before an impartial tribunal; and

 

WHEREAS, there is no precedent of anyone ever being arrested, let alone

criminally prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to jail for respectfully

requesting to testify at a Congressional public hearing, we are

convinced that the judge's decision was motivated by political bias and

a desire to retaliate against Elena Sassower for her courageous work

in exposing politically-based judicial corruption;

 

WE, the undersigned, appalled and aggrieved by this unparalleled

mistreatment of an American here at home, respectfully petition the DC

Court of Appeals to issue an order immediately freeing Elena Sassower,

Cofounder and Coordinator of the Center for Judicial Accountability,

Inc., from jail, where she has been imprisoned since her June 28, 2004

sentencing by the DC Superior Court.

 

WE, the undersigned, further wish to express our strong support of

heroic Elena Sassower, shining symbol of a new judicial reform movement,

giving inspiration and hope to judicial victims all across our land, and

hereby respectfully petition the DC Court of Appeals that she be

IMMEDIATELY freed not only to vindicate herself, but the First Amendment

right of our citizenry to participate meaningfully in the federal

judicial selection process, without fear of being arrested and thrown

into jail. At very least, she must be granted the STAY PENDING APPEAL

that the lower court wrongfully denied her.

 

 

Click Here for More Info

 

 

http://pets.care2.com/

 

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com

 

" It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. " -- William G. McAdoo

" Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing

health care to all Americans is socialism. " -- anon