Whitey Bulger

problem is, his brother has the whole judicial system in his back pocket.

former president of one of the most crooked legislatures in the country, now collecting around $200k a year in retirement. just added that so no one would take me for a massachusetts liberal.

 

That is exactly what I was thinking as I read the earlier part of your post. :rockon:

 

The money seized is criminal evidence against him - thus it was seized legally, and he has no recourse under the law to ask the US government to compensate him for it in any way, at least not until after the trial. IF he's found innocent of all charges, then he should get the money back, but given the list of charges against him (19 counts of murder, extortion, money laundering, obstruction of justice, perjury and weapons violations), I doubt he'll win.

However, given what he probably knows... I'm betting he'll be able to make a decent deal to spill his secrets.

 

There's no doubt in my mind that Whitey was being protected for the last 15 years for all the information about rival crime syndicates that he gave the FBI. The Boston mobs are pretty well wiped out now with the help of his sizable input. Not only that, most of the FBI guys that were involved with his protection are either in jail or dead. That smells like 15 years of freedom in LA to me. My guess is that he will plead out and receive a rather comfortable life sentence somewhere nice.

 

Too bad they captured him after America's Most Wanted closed up shop. It would have been a fitting way to end the show.

 

If he is found guilty, you mean (regardless of the rest of the sentence). He is already innocent under the law, unless and until the state meets its burden of proof for one or more of the charges brought against him. Remember, innocent unless and until proven guilty. Regardless of what you think of the defendant, we all want that presumption on our side should the stuff hit the fan for any one of us.

 

did they ever find hitler guilty?

 

No, they found him dead. :drum:

Seriously, if he had been taken into custody by the US military, he would have been presumed innocent, and been given counsel, same as the Nazi war criminals. If he had been taken by the USSR, he would have been presumed guilty, unless he could disprove his guilt. A no brainer for Adolf Elizabeth Hitler, but not so fun for other innocents in the USSR.

 

agreed, but as stated above, he should get the same first year public defender as any other poor schmuck. but it's not going to happen that way. in our system, the rich get off, the poor go to jail and justice is as difficult to grasp as the brass ring on the merry go round.