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Originally Posted by Halsted & Villagio
I have a little time today so I will bite. Not to be the PC police but the use of words like "strung up" in reference to an African American is... well Louis... you know what goes next so I won't bother to write it. Lets just chalk this one up to us all being human/multi-tasking without fully thinking about what we post sometimes. I say this because I have never seen you make such a mistake in the past so this definitely gets a pass in my book  |
Oh jeeze, I just went to go look at editing that comment and the mob emoji I chose is actually called "lynchmob". Yeah I didn't think about the double meaning of the phrase strung up or Foxx's race before I posted it. I'm going to leave my comment as is and just have this post explaining I didn't even think about her race while typing (which is how I hope most people try to be). I was merely thinking about how F-ed up this legal situation is...
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Regarding this whole Smollett debacle, as an attorney for close to 20 years, I have never seen anything like it in my entire career. I had a cup of coffee as a State's Attorney, Public Guardian and Public Defender -- all by the age of 30 just to get real trial experience under my belt before accepting a position with a law firm. I never saw anything like this - period.
Of course there has never been a case quite like this one with a celebrity involved (at least not in Chicago) but I have been directly involved with somewhat similar cases where Average Joe is involved and they almost always walk away with paper following them -- meaning a CD ("conditional discharge") - permanent criminal record... or probation - permanent criminal record. Never a Nolle (decline to prosecute/dismissal). A "Sup" (Supervision) or some type of carved out deferred program (for example - no criminal record if all of the conditions are met over the course of 1 year) would have been a homerun, and under this amount of evidence would have been the absolute best that a defense attorney could have reasonably hoped for. And a Sup or deferred program would be light (pretty much a slap on the wrist if you will) but at least that would have kept up the appearance of propriety, justice and fairness. But under this amount of evidence... a Nolle? Never happens.
Yes, this one should be thoroughly investigated.
Excuse the typos guys I am trying to get it all in while eating lunch. Also some the criminal laws may have changed since the last time I practiced criminal law but from friends and colleagues still in criminal practice, no, this was a "one-off".... something they NEVER see in the day to day practice of criminal law.
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You are not the only legal professional who I have heard this from. Not only did they let him of without jack shit in writing, but they apparently don't even have an understanding with the defendant as to whether he will go around calling himself innocent forever or whether he will apologize for wasting emergency resources. Foxx's office keeps saying he is not exonerated and admits fault while the first thing he said when he left the courtroom is "see, I've been honest this whole time".
Then there's this:
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Originally Posted by Steely Dan
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Uh yeah, she obviously did not and let this guy off the hook for personal reasons. Soooooo much corruption going on here. One wonders if there wasn't some sort of promise of clout or benefit to Foxx in exchange for this. I don't want to suggest this because I would hope it's not true, but the reversal is so sharp you wonder if it's not straight up graft like a bribe or campaign payment made in exchange?
The FBI will get to the bottom of this whether it is raw corruption or sheer incompetence. Either way I hope the Feds A. press even harder charges like terrorism for his letter incident and ruin his life even more than the CPD charges would have and B. press charges against Foxx for either corruption or for ethics violations on this recusement debacle.
Honestly Foxx needs to resign now, she's proven radically incompetent and/or corrupt and/or unethical in a short 48 hours. First she's recused, then she isn't. Then she let's a defendant off the hook with nothing in writing. First the case is sealed, then it isn't, just an "oversight". Like WTF is going on here? This is one of the most nationally significant cases in recent history in Chicago and THIS is how you handle it? Step down before you go to jail or lose your license.
This is going to be a very bad couple of months of Toni and the Cook County Democratic Machine.