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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
Background on U.S. v. Benedict (search for Canandaigua in the archives): http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=canandaigua Also see this article by Steve Silberman of Wired magazine: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.10/kidporn_pr.html --- From: "GR Benedict" <grbenedict2002@hotmail.com> To: declan@mail.well.com Subject: We need some help Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2002 22:39:47 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F19C98Bi89QtpfTYSl10000007e@hotmail.com> Declan, My son Larry who was featured in your 8/29/02 C-Net news article (http://news.com.com/2100-1023-955961.html) went to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday to ask for release pending appeal. His release pending appeal was denied! The root of his problem is that the law says that possession of child pornography is (believe it or not) a "crime of violence" and the law states that violent criminals shall be detained during their appeal unless we can prove "extraordinary circumstances" exist. The court did not feel that we had "extraordinary circumstances". Being innocent is not considered "extraordinary circumstances". Having a sick dying Mother who needs Larry's help is not "extraordinary circumstances". We submitted 20 affidavits from people who have known Larry (in some cases) all of his life who swore that Larry was not a violent person. We even submitted an affidavit from a doctor that said that Larry was not a pedophile. Even Judge Larimer during Larry's sentencing hearing said; "There is no evidence before me that he's a pedophile or a danger to children" and "there is no evidence submitted by probation or otherwise that Mr. Benedict has acted out with any child" But the law says that possession of child pornography is a violent crime therefore Larry is a violent criminal and he must be locked up! We have done extensive research to on the law to figure out why congress made possessing a nude picture of a child a violent crime. It looks like it was done by error! Details of our finding can be found below. We plan to bring this to the Supreme Court. Larry's lawyer is not that familiar with Supreme Court procedure. He is also very busy on Larry's appeal to withdraw his guilty plea. The reason why I am writing you is that I am hoping that you might have somebody in your Politech group who might be familiar with Supreme Court procedure that could possibly provide us with guidance or advice. We would like to get a "stay" for Larry. We are also looking for organizations that could help us by submitting "Amici Curiae Briefs". We must act quickly because Larry is expecting to be ordered to report to prison any day now. Thanks so much, George R. Benedict How did possession of child pornography become a "crime of violence" ? TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE PART II - CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CHAPTER 207 - RELEASE AND DETENTION PENDING JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS Sec. 3156. Definitions (4) the term ''crime of violence'' means - (A) an offense that has as an element of the offense the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another; (B) any other offense that is a felony and that, by its nature, involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense; or (C) any felony under chapter 109A, 110, or 117; and Possession of child pornography falls under chapter 110! CHAPTER 110 - SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND OTHER ABUSE OF CHILDREN 2252A. Certain activities relating to material constituting or containing child pornography History; How was Title 18 Chapter 207 Sec. 3165 (4) (C) added? It was added by Public Law 103-322 (HR3355) TITLE IV--VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN Subtitle E--Violence Against Women Act Improvements Sec. 40501. Pre-trial detention in sex offense cases. Section 3156(a)(4) of title 18, United States Code, is amended-- (3) by adding after subparagraph (B) the following new subparagraph: `(C) any felony under chapter 109A or chapter 110.'. Public Law 103-322 also added the following Chapter with 6 Sections CHAPTER 110A--DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (New Chapter added) Sec. 2261. Interstate domestic violence. (New Section added) Sec. 2262. Interstate violation of protection order. (New Section added) Sec. 2263. Pretrial release of defendant. (New Section added) Sec. 2264. Restitution. (New Section added) Sec. 2265. Full faith and credit given to protection orders. (New Section added) Sec. 2266. Definitions. (New Section added) Congress made everything under chapter 110 a "crime of violence" because most law enforcement agencies did not think that a man beating their wife was a crime of violence. During congressional hearings woman said that they would not report their beatings because they knew if they did the person who assaulted them would be released within hours of their arrest even angrier than before. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------