Judge Rejects Plea Agreement in Torture Protest Case
Feb 1st, 2008 by admin2
January 26, 2008
Felice or Jack Cohen-Joppa: 520-323-8697
JUDGE REJECTS PLEA AGREEMENT IN TORTURE PROTEST CASE
At Friday morning’s (January 25) hearing in federal court in Tucson,
Magistrate Jacqueline Marshall rejected a proposed plea agreement
between Army prosecutor Capt. Evan Seamone and Torture on Trial
defendant Frances Elizabeth (Betsy) Lamb.
The agreement, sought by Lamb so she might leave prison to be with her family at a time of need, would have had Lamb change her plea to guilty of trespass and
failure to obey, while continuing to trial with her two codefendants
on the conspiracy charge.
In rapid succession, Marshall outlined four objections to the
proposed agreement. She sharply criticized the prosecutor for
incorporating an intermittent jail sentence that is simply “not
doable” by the Bureau of Prisons; for the length of the proposed
sentence that approximated the maximum possible were Lamb to be
convicted at trial, and for refusing to acknowledge and give credit
for Lamb’s time served in prison since December 4. “That’s illegal,”
Marshall stated, cutting off Seamone as he sought to clarify the
government’s position by quoting back to him the particular
problematic statement in the proposed plea agreement. “What were you
thinking?” she exclaimed.
Marshall also expressed serious concern that because the conspiracy
charge would remain to be prosecuted, Lamb’s guilty plea to trespass
and failure to obey presented such serious potential conflicts that a
standard waiver signed by each defendant might not be enough to
ensure a fair trial for each.
“I’m going to pretend this plea doesn’t exist,” she concluded with
evident impatience.
Representing the defendant, attorney Meredith Little asked Marshall
whether the court would consider a revised plea agreement later in
the day.
The magistrate agreed, but in the end, no revised agreement could be
reached. The prosecutor would not agree to a home confinement
option, instead seeking a full six months incarceration on the two
guilty pleas, in return for dropping the conspiracy charge. Lamb was
returned to prison until trial.
The schedule for the trial has changed slightly. Motions will be
heard in court beginning at 1:30 p.m. Monday, February 4, and trial
is now set to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday, February 5.
Among the motions recently submitted by the defense is one to quash
the misdemeanor conspiracy charge as an “over-criminalization” of the
nonviolent protest that resulted in the arrest of Lamb, Fr. Jerry
Zawada and Mary Burton Riseley last November 18 at Ft. Huachuca. A
memo in support of the motion declares that, “Research has discovered
not one reported federal criminal case of a conviction for conspiracy
misdemeanor trespass.” The government, in conversation with defense
attorneys, has repeatedly stated its desire to set a precedent with
conspiracy convictions as a means to stop torture opponents from
making Ft. Huachuca a focus for continued nonviolent protest.