Ravenwood - 08/24/05 06:30 AM
Nobody ever accused criminals of being too smart, but hatching a murder plot while you're sitting in jail doesn't help your case.
Co-defendants in a drug case emptied toilet bowls in their Federal Detention Center cells and yelled to each other through the drainpipes about killing witnesses who might testify against them, prosecutors said.Now they face charges of threatening government witnesses on top of everything else.What Dawud Bey and those he communicated with didn't know was that the FBI was also listening, via wiretaps in and around their cells, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark J. Ehlers said Thursday.
Category: Dumb Criminals
Comments (2) top link me
One of the reasons I'm uncomfortable with people being convicted based on jailhouse informants is that I can't fathom that anyone would be so stupid as to confess or make incriminating statements to strangers inside of the Snitch Hotel. But I guess that criminals are actually that stupid. Better for everyone else, undoubtedly. Still, as a juror, I could never convict someone based on the testimony of a jailhouse witness. Prosecutors would never expect to get away with paying money for damaging testimony but they expect the jurors should believe that freedom itself is not as valuable as $500.
Posted by: mikem at August 24, 2005 1:36 PMDoesn't look like prison is much of a deterrent.
This reminds me of a cartoon that was published when the Sony Walkman was the hot new product. A couple of pitchfork-wielding devils are watching a guy pushing a wheelbarrow full of burning coals. He's wearing a Walkman, and bopping along whistling and dancing. One devil says to the other, "You know, we're just not getting through to that guy."
I wonder if an FBI agent listening to the wiretaps ever shook his head and thought, "We're just not getting through to these guys."
(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
