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Solitary Jailhouse Lawyer Argues His Way Out of Prison

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Re: Solitary Jailhouse Lawyer Argues His Way Out of Prison

#21

Post by jkuria »

anigbrowl wrote: post #17
badmash69 wrote: post #16

Hey HN, I mean no disrespect to any of the parties in this story -- but hey isn't this forum about HACKER NEWS ? The only inspirational stores I wanna read about HERE are about fellow hackers' finding Seed/ VC funding and their successful exits. Or about cool programs and code. Items pertaining to Technology , Free Markets and Capitalism. For all other life-affirming and inspirational stuff , I could always go to red…

Get used to it. Law has a good deal in common with programming, many hackers have a strong interest in and commitment to civil liberties, and this is a story about a man who overcame obstacles most entrepreneurs can barely imagine - by teaching himself how to hack the legal system. It's not just inspiring, but instructive.

Yep, beside the obvious triumph of justice against near-insurmountable odds, it made me realize some of the setbacks I've faced as an entrepreneur are complete child's play compared to what this guy went through! I got off my ass, hit the treadmill for half an hour, cleaned up my space and have been working since!

Re: Solitary Jailhouse Lawyer Argues His Way Out of Prison

#22

Post by donaldc »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #11

This is an inspiring story and every time I hear about something like this I wonder how much money each year of my life would be worth behind bars. Years of not knowing when/if I'd ever be released. This man is suing for 60 million and will probably get a settlement for less but still large sum. If he were to get $10 million, would that be enough for 10 years behind bars?

This man is suing for 60 million and will probably get a settlement for less but still large sum. If he were to get $10 million, would that be enough for 10 years behind bars?

No. At least, not if it were me.

But then again, if it were me, no amount of money would make me feel that justice was done. I'd want to see the prosecutor and anyone else involved in the frauds that got me convicted do some time themselves.

Re: Solitary Jailhouse Lawyer Argues His Way Out of Prison

#25

Post by gersh »

anigbrowl wrote: post #18
tibbon wrote: post #12

Why does 'the system' seem to make this process so painfully slow and seemingly reject requests for information/appeals arbitrarily? It seems much of the 15 years here was spent playing paperwork games with the legal system.

I don't know about the state of NY, but the entire federal court system only takes up about 2.5% of the federal budget - when you think about it, it's the least expensive branch of government by far. The flip side, though, is that there are far more cases to be heard at any given time than there are courts and personnel to hear them, and complex technical rules which have to be complied with. It seems very inefficien…

Are there too few judges? Is expanding the judiciary an option? Are too many lawyers incompetent?

Re: Solitary Jailhouse Lawyer Argues His Way Out of Prison

#26

Post by krakensden »

gersh wrote: post #25
anigbrowl wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about the state of NY, but the entire federal court system only takes up about 2.5% of the federal budget - when you think about it, it's the least expensive branch of government by far. The flip side, though, is that there are far more cases to be heard at any given time than there are courts and personnel to hear them, and complex technical rules which have to be complied with. It seems very inefficien…

Are there too few judges? Is expanding the judiciary an option? Are too many lawyers incompetent?

There is definitely a significant judicial shortage at the federal level, but most crimes don't wind up there.

Re: Solitary Jailhouse Lawyer Argues His Way Out of Prison

#27

Post by gallerytungsten »

tibbon wrote: post #12

Why does 'the system' seem to make this process so painfully slow and seemingly reject requests for information/appeals arbitrarily? It seems much of the 15 years here was spent playing paperwork games with the legal system.

"The system" slows the process because there is systemic corruption. Just as cops don't want to be photographed, prosecutors don't want their convictions overturned. So they don't play fair, and do everything they can to avoid true justice.

Re: Solitary Jailhouse Lawyer Argues His Way Out of Prison

#28

Post by edge17 »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #11

This is an inspiring story and every time I hear about something like this I wonder how much money each year of my life would be worth behind bars. Years of not knowing when/if I'd ever be released. This man is suing for 60 million and will probably get a settlement for less but still large sum. If he were to get $10 million, would that be enough for 10 years behind bars?

I don't know what the price of time is, but from my own experience I can say that it's quite high.

This comment reminded me of the Chekhov short story The Bet - http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Bet.shtml

If you reversed the statement, would you take $10m for 10 years of imprisonment? I definitely wouldn't. Life's for living.

Re: Solitary Jailhouse Lawyer Argues His Way Out of Prison

#29

Post by Locke1689 »

gallerytungsten wrote: post #27
tibbon wrote: post #12

Why does 'the system' seem to make this process so painfully slow and seemingly reject requests for information/appeals arbitrarily? It seems much of the 15 years here was spent playing paperwork games with the legal system.

"The system" slows the process because there is systemic corruption. Just as cops don't want to be photographed, prosecutors don't want their convictions overturned. So they don't play fair, and do everything they can to avoid true justice.

Citation?

Re: Solitary Jailhouse Lawyer Argues His Way Out of Prison

#30

Post by shrikant »

joe_the_user wrote: post #9
Locke1689 wrote: post #4

This really highlights the unreliability of eyewitness testimony (well, and corruption in the DA's office and police department, but that's another story). Perhaps one upside to the coming ubiquity of cameras is an increased availability in actual evidence for crimes.

Well, While unbiased eye-witness testimony might be well unreliable, the story mostly shows DA and corruption. He got out of jail by showing the people who testified against him were quite biased indeed - They were "motivated" to act by police and DA threats and the DA had systematically lied concerning this process... It's also rather heart-rending to read how he had to engage in fraud to discover the truth and natu…

[Interestingly] The judge Robert Holdman who shot down his appeal because of this fraud, has a (IMHO) history of being overly harsh.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ZrFEGVE... (search for 'Holdman' on that page)

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