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    Wednesday Watch On Injustice, Edition 63 (08!08!2012)

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    Salar Donovan Rivani
    The document discusses a proposed federal legislation called the State Witness Protection Act that aims to make witness intimidation a federal crime and increase penalties for those who attempt to prevent a witness from testifying. It notes that witness intimidation inhibits cooperation with law enforcement and leaves serious crimes unsolved. The proposed legislation would increase maximum penalties for witness intimidation and violence against witnesses. It acknowledges efforts to pass this law in response to cases where lack of witness cooperation has hindered prosecutions due to fear of retaliation from criminal elements.

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    Wednesday Watch On Injustice, Edition 63 (08!08!2012)

    Uploaded by

    Salar Donovan Rivani
    12 views1 page
    The document discusses a proposed federal legislation called the State Witness Protection Act that aims to make witness intimidation a federal crime and increase penalties for those who attempt to prevent a witness from testifying. It notes that witness intimidation inhibits cooperation with law enforcement and leaves serious crimes unsolved. The proposed legislation would increase maximum penalties for witness intimidation and violence against witnesses. It acknowledges efforts to pass this law in response to cases where lack of witness cooperation has hindered prosecutions due to fear of retaliation from criminal elements.

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    Wednesday Watch on Injustice, Edition 63 (08!08!2012)

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    The document discusses a proposed federal legislation called the State Witness Protection Act that aims to make witness intimidation a federal crime and increase penalties for those who attempt to prevent a witness from testifying. It notes that witness intimidation inhibits cooperation with law enforcement and leaves serious crimes unsolved. The proposed legislation would increase maximum penalties for witness intimidation and violence against witnesses. It acknowledges efforts to pass this law in response to cases where lack of witness cooperation has hindered prosecutions due to fear of retaliation from criminal elements.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    12 views1 page

    Wednesday Watch On Injustice, Edition 63 (08!08!2012)

    Uploaded by

    Salar Donovan Rivani
    The document discusses a proposed federal legislation called the State Witness Protection Act that aims to make witness intimidation a federal crime and increase penalties for those who attempt to prevent a witness from testifying. It notes that witness intimidation inhibits cooperation with law enforcement and leaves serious crimes unsolved. The proposed legislation would increase maximum penalties for witness intimidation and violence against witnesses. It acknowledges efforts to pass this law in response to cases where lack of witness cooperation has hindered prosecutions due to fear of retaliation from criminal elements.

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    of 1

    YOU Wednesday Watch On InjustIce YOU

    Bill Bastuk Jeffrey Deskovic


    Editor

    Dannielle Hille

    08 August 2012
    vol. 2/No 63

    IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!

    President ICH/Y

    Communications Coordinator

    Federal Legislation Proposed to Protect Witnesses


    Past Wednesday Watch articles have discussed how faulty witness identification practices and the inability to produce credible witnesses may result in an innocent individual being falsely charged and convicted of a crime. Furthermore the true perpetrator often remains free and may commit other serious crimes including murder. One reason why a witness may be unwilling to come forward after a crime is the fear of retaliation. It Could Happen to You acknowledges the recent effort by US Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) with a recently proposed law. The State Witness Protection Act, co-sponsored by Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), aims for the first time to make witness intimidation a federal crime and strengthens penalties for those who attempt to prevent a witness from testifying in a court of law. The proposed legislation would increase the maximum penalty to 30 years in prison in cases of attempted murder or physical violence against a witness, and increase the maximum sentence to 20 years in jail for other types of witness intimidation, like obstruction of justice. (Schumer, 2012) In many cities there is a strong no-snitch culture in which fear of retaliation inhibits cooperation and leaves serious crimes unsolved. For example in Rochester, New York on the evening of June 8th, a 20-year-old male was shot and killed in a well traveled street in his neighborhood. The police have been stymied by the lack of cooperation of the people they believe saw the incident but have refused to come forward out of fear of the entrenched criminal element that operates in the neighborhood. This element routinely intimidates residents from cooperating with the police. (Schumer, 2012) Protection for witnesses is crucial to the prosecution of the true perpetrator of a crime and the defense of the falsely accused. Click HERE to read the entire press release by Senator Schumer for the State Witness Protection Act.

    Please visit our website at: www.itcouldhappen2you.org and link us to your organization or personal website. Also dont forget to like us on Facebook (Click Here) to view our page.

    Share our Wednesday Watch on Injustice with your family and friends.
    Officers- Bill Bastuk- Founder Roseanne Corrigan- Vice President Steering Committee- Paul LaBarber- Art Directions, Etc. Alice Green- Center for Law and Justice Melanie Trimble- NYCLU Gabriel Sayegh- Drug Policy Alliance NY Lisa Schreibersdorf- Brooklyn Defender Services Don Thompson- ETKS Defense Pam Booker- Prison Families of NY Jeffrey Deskovic- The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation For Justice David Kaczynski- New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

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