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Wow. Totally crazy. My takeaways: 1) Don't be born a poor urban youth 2) If #1 is unavoidable, don't have friends (and don't go anywhere because you might get

Wow. Totally crazy. My takeaways: 1) Don't be born a poor urban youth 2) If #1 is unavoidable, don't have friends (and don't go anywhere because you might get jumped because you don't have friends) 3) Never be in any photos, even by accident 4) Never sign up for facebook/twitter/etc 5) Never talk to the police 6) Plea deals are mostly bullshit (these last two I knew already) I'm not a lawyer, so maybe someone more well-versed can help me, but: > But the district attorney convinced a judge that most of the time Jelani spent in jail shouldn’t count towards that release. She argued that days spent gathering more evidence, delays in testimony by a police officer who was on vacation, or instances where she was unprepared to make her case did not figure into the six-month period Would this not be a slam-dunk lawsuit for the Henrys that his sixth amendment rights were violated? Obviously not going to bring back lost time, but still, that seems insane.

tedunangst 12y ago
> Would this not be a slam-dunk lawsuit for the Henrys that his sixth amendment rights were violated? That's not how it works in New York... http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/law-3 http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/law-3
- bronbron 12y ago
  That's seriously insane. Hypothetically (realizing there are numerous practical obstacles), could this be challenged in a federal court? It seems like an egregious violation of the sixth amendment.
  - bproper 12y ago
    The state's attorney and mayor's office have both called for major changes at Riker's and threatened to sue if conditions are not improved there. But sadly that won't solve the problem of a clogged court system that allows prosecutors to delay trials for months or even years.
rayiner 12y ago
Do you really not see the yawning chasm between your 1-4 and what's described in the article? There's obviously a lot more going on here than this guy being in pictures with gang bangers. > While he was incarcerated, the police matched his DNA to another gun recovered near the scene of a gang altercation. As for his brother Jelani, it wasn't Facebook that landed him in Rikers, it was a witness identification. Now, that's a tragedy, but the old fashioned kind: over reliance on eye witness identification and overly aggressive prosecutor tactics. 20 years ago, these prosecutions would've been based on the testimony of random people in the neighborhood about who was hanging out with who.
- e12e 12y ago
  > As for his brother Jelani, it wasn't Facebook that landed him in Rikers, it was a witness identification. That's not what I get from the article. It was a witness that got him accused it was facebook likes that lead to him being denied bail on the grounds of being "gang affiliated"/"part of a conspiracy". His story wouldn't have been half as bad, if he'd just been falsely accused, and then had the case dismissed. That's how a working justice system should work: some innocents will be caught up in it -- but they shouldn't suffer any more for it than strictly necessary. On another note, with such strong conspiracy laws in NY, maybe there's still hope to get some convictions down on Wall Street?
  - rayiner 12y ago
    He was in Rikers, a jail used to hold people pending trial, because he was charged with attempted murder on the basis of the eye-witness identification. The article doesn't even say he was charged with a conspiracy or that the Facebook posts were used as evidence to charge him with a conspiracy. It appears the prosecutor uses the Facebook posts to show gang affiliation, which is a factor in deciding whether someone is a dangerous criminal who shouldn't be granted bail (i.e. being set free pending trial).
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
    - 12y ago
InclinedPlane 12y ago
Hah. The constitution. Laws. Get outta here. It's funny, right now there's a big debate on the use of torture in the united states and the priority in terms of the issues surrounding it tend to go like this: 1. whether it's effective in producing valuable intelligence 2. whether it's moral somewhere way down the list: n. whether it's legal (it's not) We live in a crazy world right now.
joe_the_user 12y ago
Well, easier to follow rules would be: 1) Never sign up for any social networking service with your real name 2) Never talk to the cops 3) Never let photos of yourself appear on the Internet for any reason. Honestly, those are rules everyone should use.

tedunangst 12y ago

> Would this not be a slam-dunk lawsuit for the Henrys that his sixth amendment rights were violated? That's not how it works in New York... http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/law-3 http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/law-3

bronbron 12y ago
That's seriously insane. Hypothetically (realizing there are numerous practical obstacles), could this be challenged in a federal court? It seems like an egregious violation of the sixth amendment.
- bproper 12y ago
  The state's attorney and mayor's office have both called for major changes at Riker's and threatened to sue if conditions are not improved there. But sadly that won't solve the problem of a clogged court system that allows prosecutors to delay trials for months or even years.

rayiner 12y ago

Do you really not see the yawning chasm between your 1-4 and what's described in the article? There's obviously a lot more going on here than this guy being in pictures with gang bangers. > While he was incarcerated, the police matched his DNA to another gun recovered near the scene of a gang altercation. As for his brother Jelani, it wasn't Facebook that landed him in Rikers, it was a witness identification. Now, that's a tragedy, but the old fashioned kind: over reliance on eye witness identification and overly aggressive prosecutor tactics. 20 years ago, these prosecutions would've been based on the testimony of random people in the neighborhood about who was hanging out with who.

e12e 12y ago
> As for his brother Jelani, it wasn't Facebook that landed him in Rikers, it was a witness identification. That's not what I get from the article. It was a witness that got him accused it was facebook likes that lead to him being denied bail on the grounds of being "gang affiliated"/"part of a conspiracy". His story wouldn't have been half as bad, if he'd just been falsely accused, and then had the case dismissed. That's how a working justice system should work: some innocents will be caught up in it -- but they shouldn't suffer any more for it than strictly necessary. On another note, with such strong conspiracy laws in NY, maybe there's still hope to get some convictions down on Wall Street?
- rayiner 12y ago
  He was in Rikers, a jail used to hold people pending trial, because he was charged with attempted murder on the basis of the eye-witness identification. The article doesn't even say he was charged with a conspiracy or that the Facebook posts were used as evidence to charge him with a conspiracy. It appears the prosecutor uses the Facebook posts to show gang affiliation, which is a factor in deciding whether someone is a dangerous criminal who shouldn't be granted bail (i.e. being set free pending trial).
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - 12y ago

InclinedPlane 12y ago

Hah. The constitution. Laws. Get outta here. It's funny, right now there's a big debate on the use of torture in the united states and the priority in terms of the issues surrounding it tend to go like this: 1. whether it's effective in producing valuable intelligence 2. whether it's moral somewhere way down the list: n. whether it's legal (it's not) We live in a crazy world right now.

joe_the_user 12y ago

Well, easier to follow rules would be: 1) Never sign up for any social networking service with your real name 2) Never talk to the cops 3) Never let photos of yourself appear on the Internet for any reason. Honestly, those are rules everyone should use.