Judge Judith Retchin is a Murderer

[xoxoxoBruce]

Washington DC Judge Judith Retchin murdered Jonathan Magbie for possession of marijuana.

TJIC alerts us to the tremendously disturbing story of Jonathan Magbie, a 27-year-old quadriplegic sentenced to ten days in jail for his first offense — possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor. Because the Washington D.C. jail was incompetent to meet his special medical needs, including his dependence on a ventilator, that was a death sentence — Magbie was dead within four days.

The law makes Judge Judith Retchin absolutely immune for sending Magbie to his foreseeable — in fact, probable — death. But she is morally culpable. I submit that it is not an exaggeration to say that Judge Judith Retchin murdered Jonathan Magbie. As one might say in a twisted real-life game of Clue, it was Judith Retchin, in the courtroom, with a brutally indifferent and incompetent prison system.

The rest.

[footfootfoot]

What a charming lady.

Prosecutor

In 1983, she was an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Retchin was the prosecutor in the drugs trial of DC Mayor Marion Barry. She also presided over a DC court challenge to the district's handgun ban in 2002.

Judge

President George H. W. Bush appointed Retchin to the bench of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia as an associate judge serving from July 1992 to December 2010 when she became a senior judge.

[Griff]

Rope.

[regular.joe]

I can see why President Bush appointed her. They have a lot in common.

[Griff]

Our system of justice seems pretty upside down when a quadriplegic essentially gets the death penalty for dope and Steven Cohen goes free.

Last November, Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, held a press conference to announce the indictment of Matthew Martoma, a former SAC trader, for what Bharara said was “the most lucrative insider-trading scheme ever charged.” According to the complaint, the 2008 trades at the center of the case involved Cohen directly. After receiving at tip-off from an inside informant about a drug trial that had turned out badly, Martoma spoke for twenty minutes with Cohen—identified as “Portfolio Manager A”—and then started unloading shares that SAC owned in the two drug companies involved, Elan and Wyeth, the complaint said. Once the results of the drug trial became public, the stock prices of the drug companies fell sharply. The government said that Martoma’s trades netted SAC as much as two hundred and seventy-six million dollars.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by regular.joe

I can see why President Bush appointed her. They have a lot in common.

I know. If he'd been a rich white boy from Connecticut, he could have killed a townie girl in a car wreck with a needle dangling from his vein and he wouldn't have spent a night in jail, nor done any time.

As Richard Pryor said, "You go down there [prison] looking for justice; that's what you find: just us."

[infinite monkey]

I wouldn't go on that show anyway. The most they'll do is pay whatever you owe if you lose. And Judge Judy just bitches at your face.

Oh. Wait. Nevermind.

[Sundae]

Well given that you have the death penalty (you as a country, not as a person) doesn't that mean all Judges in relevant States are murderers too?
And juries and prosecutors are accessories? And not the sparkly kind?

But then you also have to look at people held without trial in Guantanamo Bay.
It's all pretty tricky.
Liberty and justice for all?
No.

I'm not suggesting the UK is a shining example either.
We walk all over people's civil rights when it suits us, but we can't deport Abu Quatada?

I could call murderer quite loudly on a number of cases. But just by being on the Pill (no longer, but for years) I'm one too.

[richlevy]

I'm not a lawyer, but I believe that the terms 'negligent homicide' and 'depraved indifference (heart)' apply here.

Depraved-heart murder is recognized in the Model Penal Code § 210.2(1)(b).[3] The Model Penal Code considers unintentional killing to constitute murder when the conduct of the defendant manifests "extreme indifference to the value of human life".

[wolf]

More correctly, the corporation that runs the correctional facility is the murderer, or rather responsible for the death. Not the judge. What about the dead guy himself. How's about some personal responsibility? Just because some folks think a law is improper, it isn't any less of a law. Don't to the crime if you can't do the time, right?

Just thinking ... If you are on a vent, you can't smoke weed. Was he holding for someone else? I smell drama ... was it really a vent or just a CPAP? Either way, dude should have been on medical. So that puts at least some responsibility on the correctional facility.

[footfootfoot]

True, didn't the facility say they didn't want him because they couldn't take care of him?

[richlevy]

I assumed that even a correctional facility doctor is a doctor first and a correctional employee second. By acknowledging the danger but failing to force the issue, isn't that a breach of professional conduct. At any point couldn't he have sent the prisoner to a medical facility without the judges consent?

[Sundae]

I was extremely indifferent to the potentional life my body expelled every single month.
Potentially.
I was on the Pill because I was sexually active, so it's possible I murdered 12 babies a year.

No, I''m not (or not really intending to be) flippant about this.
Certainly as it would be hurtful to women who can't conceive/ bring a child to term.

But I have my own issues to address having enjoyied sex and being raised Catholic AND yet being anti-death penalty, so I'm just trying to be honest.

[footfootfoot]

No you didn't murder 12 babies a year. A blood clot is not a baby. Sorry, but taking the pill is a far cry from leaving a baby on an exposed hillside in the winter, at night, with wolves.

An acorn with a chit is not an oak tree that you can hang a swing from.

Cut it out. And it's especially not funny, I'd bet, to women who had to choose to abort a late term baby for any reason. Not a light decision.

[Sundae]

A fertilised egg is a child to Right-to-Lifers.

But you're right in that I didn't intend to be funny and I wouldn't mean disprespect to any woman who had to make a difficult choice. My sympathies will always be in that direction.