Victims of the Drug War Are Forced to Resort to Bizarre Legal Defenses受害者的禁毒战争被迫诉诸法律奇怪的防
By通过 Kevin Carey凯文凯里 | On November 16, 2005, Willie “Bo” Mitchell and three co-defendants — Shelton “Little Rock” Harris, Shelly “Wayne” Martin, and Shawn Earl Gardner — appeared for a hearing in the modern federal courthouse in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. | 11月16日， 2005年，威利“公报”米切尔和3名同案被告-谢尔顿“小石城”哈里斯，谢利“韦恩”马丁，和肖恩厄尔加德纳-出现了一个听证会，在现代联邦法院在市中心的马里兰州巴尔的摩市。 The four African American men were facing federal charges of racketeering, weapons possession, drug dealing, and five counts of first-degree murder.四是非洲裔美国男子所面临的联邦指控的敲诈勒索，持有武器，毒品交易，和五项第一一级谋杀罪。 For nearly two years the prosecutors had been methodically building their case, with the aim of putting the defendants to death.近两年来，检察机关已有条不紊地建设自己的情况，目的是把被告的死刑。 In Baltimore, which has a murder rate eight times higher than that of New York City, such cases are depressingly commonplace.在巴尔的摩，这是一宗谋杀案率的8倍，高于新的纽约市，这种情况是令人沮丧司空见惯。
A few minutes after 10 am, United States District Court Judge Andre M. Davis took his seat and began his introductory remarks.几分钟后，上午10时，美国地方法院法官安德烈米戴维斯了他的座位，并开始他的开场白。 Suddenly, the leader of the defendants, Willie Mitchell, a short, unremarkable looking twenty-eight-yearold with close-cropped hair, leapt from his chair, grabbed a microphone, and launched into a bizarre soliloquy.突然，领导人的被告，威利米切尔，在短期内，平凡展望28 - yearold与贴近出现了头发，跃居从他的椅子，抓住麦克风，并展开成为一个奇怪的独白。
“I am not a defendant,” Mitchell declared. “我不是被告， ”米切尔宣布。 “I do not have attorneys.” The court “lacks territorial jurisdiction over me,” he argued, to the amazement of his lawyers. “我没有律师。 ”法院“缺乏司法管辖权，我， ”他说，到惊奇，他的律师。 To support these contentions, he cited decades-old acts of Congress involving the abandonment of the gold standard and the creation of the Federal Reserve.为支持这些争论，他列举了数十年之久的行为，美国国会涉及放弃金本位和创造美国联邦储备委员会。 Judge Davis, a Baltimore-born African American in his late fifties, tried to interrupt.法官戴维斯，巴尔的摩出生的非洲裔美国人在他五十年代后期，试图打断。 “I object,” Mitchell repeated robotically. “我反对， ”米切尔一再robotically 。 Shelly Martin and Shelton Harris followed Mitchell to the microphone, giving the same speech verbatim.谢利马丁和谢尔顿哈里斯其次是米切尔向麦克风，给予相同的讲话，逐字记录。 Their attorneys tried to intervene, but when Harris’s lawyer leaned over to speak to him, Harris shoved him away.他们的律师试图干预，但是，当哈里斯的律师倾斜超过发言，他说，哈里斯被推他带走。
Judge Davis ordered the three defendants to be removed from the court, and turned to Gardner, who had, until then, remained quiet.戴维斯法官下令三名被告被遣送离境法院，并转过身去加德纳，谁了，在那之前，仍然平静。 But Gardner, too, intoned the same strange speech.但加德纳，也intoned同时奇怪的讲话。 “I am Shawn Earl Gardner, live man, flesh and blood,” he proclaimed. “我很肖恩厄尔加德纳，生活的男子，有血有肉的， ”他宣布。 Every time the judge referred to him as “the defendant” or “Mr.每一次法官提到他为“被告”或“先生 Gardner,” Gardner automatically interrupted: “My name is Shawn Earl Gardner , sir.” Davis tried to explain to Gardner that his behavior was putting his chances of acquittal or leniency at risk.加德纳， “加德纳自动中断： ”我的名字是肖恩厄尔加德纳 ，主席先生“ 。戴维斯试图解释，以加德纳认为他的行为是把他的机会被判无罪，或从宽处理处于危险之中。 “Don’t throw your life away,” Davis pleaded. “不要丢你的生活消失， ”戴维斯。 But Gardner wouldn’t stop.但加德纳不会停止。 Judge Davis concluded the hearing, determined to find out what was going on.法官戴维斯结束了听证会，决心找出发生什么事情。
As it turned out, he wasn’t alone.作为原来，他并不孤单。 In the previous year, nearly twenty defendants in other Baltimore cases had begun adopting what lawyers in the federal courthouse came to call “the flesh-and-blood defense.” The defense, such as it is, boils down to this: As officers of the court, all defense lawyers are really on the government’s side, having sworn an oath to uphold a vast, century-old conspiracy to conceal the fact that most aspects of the federal government are illegitimate, including the courts, which have no constitutional authority to bring people to trial.在过去的一年，有近20名被告在其他巴尔的摩案件已开始采取什么律师，在联邦法院来电话“的血肉联系，防御”的国防，例如因为它是，归结为一点：作为人员法院，所有辩护律师真的是对政府的方面，有宣誓就职宣誓，坚持幅员广阔，百年历史的阴谋，隐瞒事实，即大多数方面，联邦政府是非法的，包括法院，没有宪法权威，使人民的审判。 The defendants also believed that a legal distinction could be drawn between their name as written on their indictment and their true identity as a “flesh and blood man.”被告还认为，一个法律的区别，可以加以区分他们的名字，作为写上他们的起诉书和他们的真实身份，作为一个“有血有肉的人” 。
Judge Davis and his law clerk pored over the case files, which led them to a series of strange Web sites.法官戴维斯和他的法律秘书仔细查看案卷，而导致了一系列的奇怪的网站。 The fleshand- blood defense, they discovered, came from a place far from Baltimore, from people as different from Willie Mitchell as people could possibly be.该fleshand血，防御，他们发现，来自一个地方远离巴尔的摩，从人民群众不同的Willie米切尔随着人们可能。 Its antecedents stretched back decades, involving religious zealots, gun nuts, tax protestors, and violent separatists driven by theories that had fueled delusions of Aryan supremacy and race war in gun-loaded compounds in the wilds of Montana and Idaho.其前因拉回到几十年来，所涉及的宗教狂热者，枪坚果，税示威和暴力分离主义理论的推动下已燃的幻想雅利安人至上和种族战争中枪加载化合物在荒野的蒙大拿州和爱达荷州。 Although Mitchell and his peers didn’t know it, they were inheriting the intellectual legacy of white supremacists who believe that America was irrevocably broken when the 14th Amendment provided equal rights to former slaves.虽然米切尔和他的同行不知道，他们在继承的智慧遗产，白人至上主义谁相信美国是不可改变的破碎时，第十四修正案规定的平等权利，以前的奴隶。 It was the ideology that inspired the Oklahoma City bombing, the biggest act of domestic terrorism in the nation’s history, and now, a decade later, it had somehow sprouted in the crime-ridden ghettos of Baltimore.这是思想，振奋了俄克拉何马城爆炸案，最大的行为，国内的恐怖主义，民族的历史和现在，十年后，它已在某种程度上发芽，在犯罪四起贫民区的巴尔的摩。
The series of events that led to the prosecution of Willie Mitchell et al are as convoluted, tragic and intermittently absurd as an episode of HBO’s acclaimed Baltimore crime drama, The Wire .一系列事件导致起诉的Willie米切尔等人是错综复杂，悲惨和荒谬的间歇性作为一个插曲高压氧的赞誉巴尔的摩犯罪的戏剧， 铁丝网 。 Mitchell and company came of age on the streets of West Baltimore, a few miles and a world away from the rejuvenated inner harbor and the tourist attractions near the federal courthouse.米切尔和公司前来年龄对街道西巴尔的摩，几英里和世界脱离振兴内港和旅游景点附近的联邦法院。 According to prosecutors, the group began selling drugs together as teenagers in the mid-1990s, driving up I-95 to New York City, buying half kilos of cocaine in upper Manhattan and cooking it into crack to sell back home.据检察官，该集团开始销售毒品，共同为青少年在20世纪90年代中期，拉动上I - 95到纽约市，购买半公斤可卡因在上曼哈顿和烹饪它变成打击出售回家乡。 They added heroin to their repertoire a few years later, as well as robbing and killing other drug dealers.他们还说，将毒品海洛因运至他们的曲目，几年后，以及抢劫和杀害其他毒贩。 By 2002, they were firmly established in what passes as normal enterprise in a hollowed-out economy like Baltimore, where the drug trade often provides more opportunity than legitimate work and the bedrock institutions of family and school have crumbled. 2002年，他们牢固确立了在什么通行证，作为正常的企业在一个被掏空出经济一样，巴尔的摩，那里的毒品贸易，往往提供了更多的机会，比合法的工作和基岩机构家庭和学校已经崩溃。 They had children out of wedlock with multiple women.他们子女的非婚生子女，与多个妇女。 They were occasionally arrested, although they never served much time.他们偶尔会被捕，虽然他们从未太多时间。 It was an insular culture where a ruthless prohibition against “snitching” to the police was often more powerful than any law.这是一种狭隘的文化一场残酷的禁止“ snitching ”向警方往往更强大，比任何法律。 Even as cities like New York saw the murder rate decline dramatically, drug killings in Baltimore continued at a steady clip.甚至作为城市如纽约，看到的谋杀率大幅下降，药物的杀戮在巴尔的摩，继续在稳定的剪辑。
According to the indictment, the end began on February 18, 2002, in a downtown Baltimore nightclub called Hammerjacks, where Mitchell got into a dispute and stabbed a fellow drug dealer in the back, seriously wounding him.根据起诉书，年底开始对2002年2月18日，在一个位于市中心的巴尔的摩夜总会所谓hammerjacks ，米切尔进入争端，并刺伤了一名研究员毒品交易商在背部，重伤他。 If Mitchell had hoped to get away with this attempted murder, he was swiftly and brutally set straight by the drug dealer’s associates.如果米切尔曾希望摆脱与此谋杀未遂，他迅速和残酷的一套直由毒品交易的同伙。 When police on patrol found Mitchell later that evening, he was on a sidewalk with several men jumping on his head.当警方在巡逻时发现了米切尔后，晚上，他是在人行道上与数名男子跳跃，要他的人头。 Mitchell survived the assault, but he remained in serious trouble.米切尔幸存下来的殴打，但他仍然在严重的麻烦。 The police had issued a warrant for his arrest; more ominously, his enemies had placed a $10,000 contract on his head.警方已签发了逮捕令逮捕他，更不祥的是，他的敌人放置了一个一点○○○万美元合同要他的人头。
Mitchell probably didn’t know exactly what his enemies had in mind, but he was seasoned enough to realize that they wanted him killed.米切尔可能不知道究竟他的敌人已在介意，但他是久经考验的不够明白，他们要他死亡。 Ten days after the club incident, prosecutors allege, he made a phone call to an associate of the men who had beaten him up.十天后，俱乐部的事件，检察官指称，他打电话给一名协理的男性谁曾殴打他。 The associate was a drug dealer named Oliver “Woody” McCaffity.协理是一个毒品交易商名为奥利弗“木本” mccaffity 。 Mitchell proposed that the two men meet that evening for a drug deal.米切尔建议，该两名男子见面，当晚为一个毒品交易。
Neither man came to the meeting alone.既不男子来到了会议。 Mitchell brought a friend, Shelton Harris.米切尔所带来的一位朋友，谢尔顿哈里斯。 McCaffity brought his sometime girlfriend, Lisa Brown. mccaffity带来了他一段时间的女朋友，丽莎布朗。 Brown was a pastor’s daughter, a computer systems analyst and mother of three.布朗是一名牧师的女儿，电脑系统分析师和三个孩子的母亲。 Her parents told reporters that she had broken up with McCaffity after learning of his involvement with drugs.她的父母告诉记者，她打破了与mccaffity后，学习他的参与与毒品。 But when he called and invited her to the movies, she decided to go along.但是，当他呼吁，并邀请她到电影，她决定去。
The two parties drove to the Park Heights section of Northwest Baltimore.两党驱车前往公园岭段西北的巴尔的摩。 It was a quick meeting.这是一个快速的会议。 Mitchell and Harris climbed into the backseat of McCaffity’s Infiniti Q-45.米切尔和哈里斯攀升到次要的mccaffity的英菲尼迪的Q - 45 。 Then they shot McCaffity through the head and fired through Brown’s raised right hand into her left temple, where police later found a .357 caliber bullet.然后他们开枪mccaffity通过头部和发射通过布朗的提出，右手到她的左庙，警方稍后发现了0.357口径的子弹。 The bodies of McCaffity and Brown were left in the car, which rolled downhill and rammed into a nearby tree at the dead-end of the street.该机构的mccaffity和布朗留在车内，其中推出的下坡撞上附近的树在死端的街。 Police found it two hours later.警方调查发现，这两个小时后。 A palm print on the car window was later matched to Harris, and McCaffity’s cell phone records revealed calls that night to Mitchell’s phone.手掌印上车窗口，后来相匹配的哈里斯，并mccaffity的手机通话记录显示，当晚米切尔的电话。 Mitchell, suspecting that McCaffity’s associates were going to try to kill him, had apparently decided to kill first.米切尔，怀疑mccaffity的同伙去尝试杀死他，显然决定杀死第一。 The murder would probably not have attracted much attention, except for the fact that McCaffity’s Infiniti was owned by Hasim Rahman, the recently dethroned heavyweight boxing champion of the world.谋杀案可能不会有备受关注，除了事实，即mccaffity的英菲尼迪所拥有hasim拉赫曼，最近dethroned重量级拳击冠军的世界。 McCaffity was a friend and business associate of Rahman, causing the ex-champ to quickly call a press conference denying any involvement in the crimes. mccaffity是一个朋友和生意伙伴的拉赫曼，造成前冠军迅速呼叫的记者招待会上否认参与了任何刑事罪行。 (Police have never alleged otherwise.) （警方从来没有被指控，否则） 。
If the killing of McCaffity and Brown had been a successful preemptive strike, Mitchell was also prepared to kill for more mundane reasons.如果杀害mccaffity和布朗已成功先发制人，米切尔也准备杀死更多的世俗的原因。 On March 24, a few weeks after the Mc- Caffity murder, Mitchell allegedly called a former high school classmate named Darryl Wyche and offered to buy some heroin and cocaine from him. 3月24日，数星期后的MC - caffity谋杀，米切尔据称，所谓的前高中同学，命名为欧阳若曦wyche ，并表示愿意购买一些海洛因和可卡因从他。 Darryl, excited by the prospect of a big sale, agreed.欧阳若曦，兴奋的前景的一大销售，表示同意。 The two made plans to meet in a nearby industrial park around midnight.这两个计划，以应付在附近的一个工业园区周围的午夜十二时。
Again, neither party came alone.再次，任何一方都没有来。 Wyche brought his younger brother Tony, who had reluctantly agreed to drive. wyche带来了他的弟弟托尼，谁已勉强同意，以推动。 Mitchell brought Harris again, as well as two more friends: Shelly Martin and Shawn Gardner.米切尔所带来的哈里斯再次，以及两名有更多的朋友：谢利马丁和肖恩加德纳。
The Wyche brothers opened the back door of their Honda to let Mitchell and his men into the back seat.该wyche兄弟开后门，他们本田，让米切尔和他的男子进入后座。 Then each received a bullet in the side of the head.然后每个收到的子弹在一侧的头部。 The next morning the police found the bodies, seat belts still on.第二天早上，警方发现的尸体，安全带仍然在。 (Mitchell appears to have seen Wyche as an easy source of drugs and cash.) （米切尔似乎已看到wyche作为一件容易的来源，毒品和现金） 。
But Mitchell’s luck was about to end.但米切尔的运气是即将结束。 When Baltimore homicide detectives found the bodies of the Wyche brothers, they assumed they had come across another hard-to-solve drug killing.当巴尔的摩凶杀案的侦探发现尸体的wyche兄弟，他们假设，他们曾遇到的另一个努力，到解决毒品杀害。 Then they received an unexpected phone call.然后他们收到了意想不到的电话。 It was from Darryl Wyche’s mother-in-law, who reported finding a strange message on her phone.这是由冯永wyche的母亲-在法律，谁报道，发现一个奇怪的讯息，她的电话。 Recorded at 12:43 am, the message was four and a half minutes of a group of men with names like “Wayne” and “Shorty” saying things like “Bup-bup-bup-bup-bup, yo, they both fucked.” The call had come from the cellphone of Darryl Wyche.记录在上午12时43分，该邮件是4和1分半钟的一组男子的名字一样， “韦恩”和“ shorty ”的话，像“ bup - bup - bup - bup - bup ，协青社，他们都fucked 。 “的呼吁，来自手机的欧阳若曦wyche 。
Wyche’s family and the police soon figured out what had happened: One of the murderers had stolen Darryl Wyche’s phone and forgotten to turn it off. wyche的家人和警方很快计算出了什么事：一个杀人犯曾被盗冯永wyche的电话，并忘记关闭它。 While the killers were driving away, one of them had accidentally pressed the phone’s speed dial button, calling Darryl’s mother-in-law and producing a most unusual piece of evidence: a voicemail confession.而凶手被赶走，其中一人不小心按下手机的快速拨号按钮，要求欧阳若曦的母亲-在法律和制作一个最不寻常的证据：一个语音信箱招供。 With considerable understatement, a lieutenant in the city homicide unit reflected on his good fortune to the Baltimore Sun .具有相当轻描淡写，一名中尉在该城市的凶杀案，案单位反映他的好运到巴尔的摩太阳报 。 “We got lucky,” he said. “我们运气好， ”他说。 Willie Mitchell and Shelly Martin were soon rounded up and put in jail.威利米切尔和谢利李柱铭很快围捕，并在监狱里。
What would become the fifth and final murder charge in the case of Willie Mitchell and his cohorts took place two months later.什么将成为第五和最后的谋杀指控在该案件的Willie米切尔和他的人群发生两个月后。 This time, only Mitchell’s friend Shawn Gardner was directly involved.这个时候，只有米切尔的朋友肖恩加德纳直接参与。 It began with a man named Darius Spence, who had found out that his wife, Tanya, was cheating on him with a local drug dealer everyone called “Momma.”它开始与一名男子名为大流士的Spence ，谁发现了出来，他的妻子，坦尼娅，是作弊行为，他与当地的毒品交易商，大家所谓的“ momma ” 。
Spence decided to have Momma beaten up severely.斯彭斯决定有momma殴打严重。 To accomplish this, he negotiated with another drug dealer named Willie Montgomery.要做到这一点，他通过谈判与另一毒贩名为威利蒙哥马利。 Would Montgomery be willing to beat up Momma in exchange for money?将蒙哥马利愿意殴打momma以换取金钱呢？ But Montgomery had another proposition altogether.但蒙哥马利的另一命题完全。 Beating Momma up didn’t make sense, Montgomery argued, because then Momma would undoubtedly try to kill Montgomery.殴打momma起来没有意义上讲，蒙哥马利辩称，因为当时的momma无疑会尝试杀死蒙哥马利。 It was better just to kill Momma outright, and for five thousand dollars, Montgomery would be glad to do the job.这是更好地只是为了杀死momma买断，并为5000美元，蒙哥马利将很乐意做的工作。 Spence said he’d think it over.斯彭斯说，他认为这要超过。
Unfortunately for Darius Spence, Montgomery wasn’t interested in waiting around for an answer.可惜大流士的Spence ，蒙哥马利是不感兴趣，在等待大约一个答案。 Instead, sensing opportunity, Montgomery decided to tell Momma about the hit.相反地，传感的机会，蒙哥马利决定告诉momma有关击中。 If I turn down the deal, Montgomery explained, then Spence will probably just hire someone else to kill you.如果我拒绝了这笔交易，蒙哥马利解释，然后彭斯可能会只是租用别人要杀了你。 Therefore, Montgomery reasoned, you should hire me to kill Spence first.因此，蒙哥马利理性的，你应该聘请我杀的Spence第一。 Momma was persuaded. momma被说服。 (As Montgomery later explained to the prosecutors, “I guess he like that idea better than Darius Spence’s idea.”) （蒙哥马利后来解释，检察官， “我猜他这样的想法总比大流士彭斯的想法” ） 。
To execute the hit on Spence, Montgomery recruited two associates, one of whom was Shawn Gardner.执行创下的彭斯，蒙哥马利招聘2同伙，其中一人是肖恩加德纳。 For the next two months, the three men staked out Spence’s apartment.为在未来两个月内，该三名男子孤注一掷出彭斯的公寓。 The plan was for Shawn Gardner and his associate to invade from the basement and carry out the killing, and then run to a nearby getaway car, which was to be driven by Montgomery.该计划是为肖恩加德纳和他的副入侵从地下室进行杀害，然后运行到附近的汽车逃走，这是驱使蒙哥马利。 Special care was to be taken not to harm Tanya, and they would cover her eyes with duct tape to prevent her from identifying them.特别照顾的是将要采取的不伤害坦尼娅，他们将涵盖她的眼睛胶带，以防止她从确定他们。 Still, Montgomery warned Momma that he couldn’t guarantee Tanya’s safety.不过，蒙哥马利警告momma认为，他不能保证坦尼娅的安全。 “If it’s up to me, she won’t be hurt,” Montgomery told Momma, “but some things could go wrong.” Momma’s reply was to the point: “Do what you do.” “如果它的成立对我来说，她将不会受到伤害， ”蒙哥马利说， momma ， “但有些事情可能出乱子” 。 momma的答复是这一点： “做你做的” 。
On June 7, 2002, the three men drove to the Spence apartment, a worn red brick building at the end of a cul-de-sac a few miles from Baltimore city. 6月7日， 2002年，该三名男子，驱车前往斯彭斯的公寓，一个破旧的红砖建筑在去年底一小路几英里，从巴尔的摩市。 But the hit didn’t go as planned.但打击并没有按计划进行下去。 Darius Spence wasn’t in the apartment, and they didn’t manage to blindfold Tanya.大流士彭斯没有在公寓，他们没有管理，以眼罩坦尼娅。 As children played outside the Spence apartment, Tanya burst through the kitchen door on the third floor, screaming, “No!作为儿童的发挥以外的Spence公寓，坦尼娅水管爆裂，透过厨房门，三楼，尖叫， “不！ No!” Lifting one leg over the balcony, she tried to climb down to the floor below but lost her grip and fell fifteen feet to the ground, landing a few feet from the children.不！ “解除一条腿超过阳台上，她试图攀登到地板下面，但失去了她的抓地力下降一十五英尺到地面，降落几英尺，从儿童。 Gasping for breath, she motioned for them to run away before crawling under the first floor balcony.吸一口气，她动议为他们逃跑前，检索下，第一楼阳台。 Moments later, the two killers emerged from the Spence apartment, ran down the steps and stopped a few feet from Tanya, now lying in the fetal position in the dirt and begging for her life.片刻之后，两个杀手涌现出的Spence公寓，然下跌的步骤和停止几英尺，从坦尼娅，现在摆在胎儿的立场，在污垢和乞求她的生命。 One pulled out a large caliber revolver and fired two shots into Tanya’s chest as the children watched.一退出一大口径左轮手枪，并开了两枪，到坦尼娅的胸部作为儿童观看。 Then both men ran away.然后两人逃跑。
Unfortunately for the killers, Montgomery wasn’t where they thought he’d be.不幸的凶手，蒙哥马利是不是他们以为他要。 Somehow the meeting place had gotten confused, and the getaway failed.在某种程度上会议地点已得到了混乱，逃走失败。 Police quickly apprehended Shawn Gardner and his associate.警方迅速逮捕肖恩加德纳和他联系。 Eventually, the law caught up to Montgomery, too.最终，法律赶上来蒙哥马利，太。
Gardner was tried, convicted, and sentenced in state court to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Tanya Spence.加德纳被审判，定罪，并判处在国家法院终身监禁，没有假释的可能性，为被谋杀的案件坦尼娅的Spence 。 Meanwhile, Willie Mitchell and Shelly Martin were charged by the state with the Wyche brothers’ killings and sat in prison for the next year and a half as police and prosecutors assembled their case.同时，威利米切尔和谢利李柱铭被落案起诉，由国家与wyche兄弟的杀戮和星期六在监狱中为未来一年半时间，作为警察和检察官组装他们的案件。
Then, on January 22, 2004 — nearly two years after the first four murders — the word came down from the office of US Attorney Thomas DiBiagio: the Willie Mitchell case was going federal, and the government was seeking the death penalty.然后，在2004年1月22日-将近两年后，首四个月的谋杀案-这个词来从办公室的美国司法部长托马斯迪比阿究：威利米切尔案件前往联邦，而政府正在寻求死刑。 The Justice Department, DiBiagio explained, was going after “individuals responsible for making life hell in Baltimore.”司法部，迪比阿究解释说，去后， “个人负责，使生活在地狱巴尔的摩” 。
For Mitchell and company, this was bad news.为米切尔和公司，这是坏消息。 Instead of jurors selected from the city pool, Mitchell would likely be judged by an all-white panel of citizens from places like Maryland’s westernmost rural counties or the far reaches of the Eastern Shore.而不是选定的陪审员从市游泳池，米切尔很可能会作出判断，一个全是白人公民小组，由地方，如马里兰大学的最西边的农村县或远到达东海岸。 He would face better-funded prosecutors, and was far more likely to get the death penalty.他将面临更好地资助检察官，和远越有可能得到被判处死刑。 Maryland has only executed five people in the last thirty years, but in 2005, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft was aggressively seeking death sentences.马里兰州的只有5人被处决，在过去三十年，但在2005年，当时的司法部长阿什克罗夫特是积极寻求判处死刑。 In fact, the Justice Department was even retrying cases in order to win death penalties for crimes like the Spence murder, for which Shawn Gardner was already serving life without parole.事实上，在美国司法部，甚至试案件，以争取死刑的罪行一样，斯彭斯谋杀，而肖恩加德纳已经服终身不得假释。
DiBiagio’s office also added a raft of conspiracy charges to the indictment, filed under the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.迪比阿究的办公室还增添了一系列的阴谋收费的起诉书，提交根据联邦敲诈勒索的影响和腐败组织（波多黎各）法。 By alleging that the defendants were part of an organized conspiracy — the so-called “Willie Mitchell organization” — prosecutors could hold all four defendants responsible for any of the crimes the others had committed.由指被告的一部分，一个有组织的阴谋-即所谓的“威利米切尔组织” -检察官可以容纳所有四名被告负责的任何犯罪，其他已承诺。 That’s why Shelton Harris, who wasn’t originally arrested for the Wyche or the McCaffity and Brown murders, was pulled off the street and charged with the full slate of crimes.这就是为什么谢尔顿哈里斯，谁是原先没有被捕，为wyche ，或mccaffity和布朗的谋杀案，拉过街，并被控以充分板岩的罪行。 It’s also why Mitchell and Harris were charged with the Spence murder, although they were already in jail when Shawn Gardner committed it.这也是为什么米切尔和哈里斯被落案控以有关的Spence谋杀，虽然他们已经在监狱时，肖恩加德纳承诺。 RICO is normally applied to members of the mafia and organized crime, and its use sent a clear message: the government was coming at Mitchell and company with everything it had.波多黎各是通常适用于成员的黑手党和有组织的犯罪，及其使用发出了一个明确的讯息：政府未来在米切尔和公司与它的一切。
The prosecutors bolstered the conspiracy argument by noting that, unlike most Baltimore drug dealers, Mitchell and company had incorporated a legal entity for which they all worked and allegedly funneled proceeds of their drug business into: “Shake Down Entertainment, Ltd.” The group promoted rap CDs and concerts through the company, which even had its own record label, “Shystyville.” Soon, Shystyville CDs with titles like “Pure Shit” became evidence of not just the conspiracy but the crimes themselves, with prosecutors entering into the record lyrics like these:检察机关增强了阴谋的论据，由注意到，这有别于绝大部分的巴尔的摩毒品贩子，米切尔和公司已注册成立一个法律实体，而他们的所有工作和据称funneled的收益，他们的毒品生意为： “握手言和下跌娱乐有限公司” ，该集团晋升说唱的CD和演唱会，透过该公司，其中甚至有其自身的唱片公司， “ shystyville ”尽快， shystyville光碟与书籍一样， “纯shit外围” ，成为证据，不只是阴谋，但自己的罪行，检察官进入纪录的歌词像这些：
I watch ya brains fly all over on the bitch next to you 我看亚动脑筋，苍蝇都对荡妇你旁边
Homeboy it’s up to you I could put this pup to you homeboy它的成立给你我可以把这个给你的PUP
Then to pumpin’ you up like a innertube 然后pumpin '你像innertube
Send shots that’ll pump up the end of you 发送镜头将泵了年底你
Leave you all fat and bloated you know I keep 离开你所有的脂肪和臃肿，你知道，我保持
the Mac loaded then I like ta clack rollin’ 陆委会装货的话，我想，电讯局长瓣罗林'
That’s why Bo and Weez on lock now and every day on lock down 这就是为什么公报和weez对锁，现在每一天就锁定
Niggas getting shot down for runnin’ they mouth clown niggas越来越击落为runnin ' ，他们口小丑
Tell me how it feels with a gun in ya mouth now 告诉我如何感觉与枪在雅口，现在
Prosecutors alleged that the “bitch next to you” was Lisa Brown, who was sitting beside Oliver McCaffity when he was shot through the head, that a “pup” is slang for the largecaliber revolver used in the killing, that the “Bo” on “lock now” was the imprisoned Willie “Bo” Mitchell, and that the reference to “Niggas getting shot for runnin’ they mouth” amounted to witness intimidation.检察官指称， “荡妇你旁边”丽莎布朗，谁坐在旁边的奥利弗mccaffity他在被击毙时，通过头部， “黄石”是俚语为largecaliber左轮手枪，用于在被杀害， “公报”关于“现在锁”是被囚禁的Willie “公报”米切尔，并提到“ niggas获得球runnin ' ，他们口”为证人恐吓。 Faced with the prospect of an all-white jury hearing this music in the courtroom, the defense lawyers objected on the grounds that lots of songs have lyrics that “proudly refer to violent retaliation,” offering by way of example country star Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).”面对前景，一个全白人组成的陪审团听到这个音乐在法庭上，辩护律师提出反对意见，理由是，很多歌曲的歌词， “自豪地指的暴力报复， ”要约的方式，例如国家的明星托比凯斯的“礼貌性的红色，白色和蓝色（愤怒的美国） ” 。
Nearly two years passed.近两年来通过。 The wheels of justice were turning, slowly but surely.车轮司法转折，慢慢但肯定。 Then came the memorable hearing in which the defendants debuted the flesh-and-blood defense.后来难忘的听证会中，被告推出了血肉联系，防御。 After that, everything changed.之后，一切都改变了。
A month after the hearing, Judge Davis took the unusual step of issuing a written opinion denying all of the defendant’s “unusual — if not bizarre” arguments.一个月后，听证会上，法官戴维斯采取了不寻常的步骤，发表了一份书面意见，无可否认，所有的被告的“不寻常的-如果不是离奇”的论点。 “Perhaps they would even be humorous,” Davis wrote, “were the stakes not so high It is truly ironic that four African- American defendants here apparently rely on an ideology derived from a famously discredited notion: the illegitimacy of the Fourteenth Amendment.” One can understand his incredulity that four Baltimore drug dealers might invoke a racist argument that dates back to the nineteenth century. “或许他们会更幽默， ”戴维斯写道， “人的利害关系不那么高，这是真正讽刺的是， 4非洲裔美国人被告在这里显然是依赖于一种意识形态来自著名的抹黑的概念：非婚生的第十四修正案” 。一是可以理解的，他incredulity四个巴尔的摩毒品贩子可引用一个种族主义的说法可以追溯到十九世纪。 But as it turns out, that’s when the seeds of the flesh-and-blood defense were sown.但由于原来，这就是当种子的血肉联系，国防播种。
In 1878, southern Democrats pushed legislation through Congress limiting the ability of the federal government to marshal troops on US soil.在1878年，南部同盟推动国会通过立法限制的能力，联邦政府元帅的部队在美国本土。 Known as Posse Comitatus, (Latin for “power of the county”) the law’s authors hoped to constrain the government’s ability to protect black southerners from violence and discrimination.被称为波塞comitatus ， （拉丁语系“的权力，县” ） ，该法的作者希望来约束政府的执政能力，以保护黑南方人从暴力和歧视。 The act symbolically marked the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of Jim Crow.该法象征，标志着年底的重建和开始吉姆克劳。
For the next eight decades, black Americans lived under the yoke of institutional racism.为未来80年来，美国黑人生活的枷锁下的体制种族主义。 But by the late 1950s, the civil rights movement was growing in strength.但50年代后期起，民权运动被越来越多的实力。 In 1957, President Eisenhower sent 1,200 troops from the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, so that nine black students could safely enter a previously all-white high school.在1957年，艾森豪威尔总统发出1200年从部队第101空降师向阿肯色州小石城，使九黑人学生可以安全地进入一个以前全是白人高中。 The landmark Civil Rights Act followed in 1964.具有里程碑意义的民权法案其次是在1964年。
These developments horrified one William Gale, a World War II veteran, insurance salesman, self-styled minister of racist Christian Identity theology, and raving anti-Semite.这些事态发展感到震惊一威廉烈风，第二次世界大战的退伍军人，保险推销员，自封为部长的种族主义基督教神学的身份，和raving反semite 。 In 1971, he launched a movement whose impact would reverberate through the radical fringes of American society for decades to come.在1971年，他发起一个运动，其影响将回荡，通过激进的边缘，美国社会几十年来形成。 He called it Posse Comitatus, named for the 1878 law he believed Eisenhower had violated by sending the troops to Little Rock.他呼吁它波塞comitatus ，命名为1878年的法律，他相信艾森豪威尔违反了派遣部队到小石城。 In a series of tapes and self-published pamphlets, Gale explained that county sheriffs were the supreme legal law enforcement officers in the land, and that county residents had the right to form a posse to enforce the Constitution — however they, as “sovereign citizens,” chose to interpret it.在一系列的录音带和自我出版的小册子，烈风解释说，县县有最高的法律，执法人员在土地，以及县居民的权利，形成一个波塞，以执行宪法-但他们作为“主权公民“选择来解释它。 Public officials who interfered, instructed Gale, should be “hung by the neck” at high noon.公职人员谁干预，指示，烈风，应该是“由红脖子”在高中午十二时。
Gale’s racist beliefs were hardly unique.烈风的种族主义的信念几乎独一无二的。 His singular innovation was to devise a “legal” philosophy that was enormously appealing to disaffected, alienated citizens.他的奇异的创新是要制订一个“合法”的哲学，这是有很大的吸引力心怀不满的，疏离的公民。 It was a promise of power, a means of asserting that they were the true inheritors of the founding fathers’ ideal, a dream they believed had been corrupted by a vast conspiracy that only they could see.这是一个承诺的权力，一种手段，声称他们是真正的继承者的创始者'的理想，一个梦想，他们相信已损坏的由一个庞大的阴谋，只有他们可以看到。 Gale’s ideas gave people on the paranoid edge of society a collective identity.烈风的想法了人民对偏执的边缘社会集体的身份。 It told them what they desperately wanted to hear: that the federal government was illegitimate, and that the legal weapons the state used to oppress them could be turned against the state.它告诉他们什么，他们迫切希望听到：联邦政府是非法的，以及法律武器国家用来压迫他们可以把危害国家。
Soon, Posses were sprouting across the country, attracting veterans of the 1960s-era tax protest movement, Second Amendment absolutists, Christian Identity adherents, and ardent anti-communists who had abandoned the John Birch Society because they felt the organization wasn’t extreme enough.很快，拥有被发芽该国各地，吸引退伍军人， 20世纪60年代时代的税务抗议运动，第二项修正案absolutists ，基督教信徒的身份，和殷切的反共产党人谁放弃了约翰桦木社会因为他们认为该组织没有足够的极端。 Local groups would meet to share literature, listen to tapes of Gale’s sermons, and discuss preparations for the approaching End Times.当地团体将举行会议，分享文学，听录音带，烈风的说教，并讨论了筹备工作接近结束时间。 This extremist stew produced exotic amalgamations of paranoia, such as when Posse members would explain the need for local militias to stockpile weapons in order to defend white Christians from blacks in the coming race war sparked by the inevitable economic collapse caused by the income tax and a cabal of international Jewish bankers bent on global dominance through one world government, for Satan.这个极端的大杂烩制作融合异国情调的妄想，例如当波塞成员将解释需要当地民兵储存武器，以捍卫白人基督徒从黑人在未来的种族战争所引发的不可避免的经济崩溃所带来的收入税和阴谋集团的国际犹太银行家执意要在全球的统治地位，通过同一个世界政府，为撒旦。
While local Posses would periodically confront law enforcement officials in the 1970s, (usually in property disputes), they were often incompetent, and few people were hurt.而当地拥有将定期对抗执法官员在七十年代， （通常是在财产纠纷） ，他们往往不称职的，少数人受伤。 But things took a serious turn in 1978, when thousands of farmers rallied in Washington DC seeking relief from low commodity prices, high interest rates, and farm debt.但事情发生了严重的转折， 1978年，当数以千计的农民凝聚在华盛顿特区寻求救济，从商品价格低，利息高企，和农场的债务。 When Congressional relief attempts failed, some farmers became susceptible to peddlers of the Posse ideology, which preached that the farm crisis had been brought on by the international Jewish banking conspiracy, abandonment of the gold standard and a malevolent Federal Reserve.当国会救济企图失败了，一些农民成为易受贩卖的波塞思想，鼓吹该农场的危机，已提请就受到了国际银行业的犹太阴谋，放弃金本位和恶意美国联邦储备。
By 1982, Bill Gale had flown to Kansas to conduct paramilitary training and indoctrination for splinter groups of disaffected farmers. 1982年，条例草案烈风已飞到堪萨斯州进行准军事训练和灌输为分裂集团心怀不满的农民。 At night, a country music station in Dodge City broadcast tapes of Gale’s sermons.在夜间，一个国家的流行音乐电台在道奇城市播出的录音带烈风的说教。 “You’re either going to get back to the Constitution of the United States in your government,” he intoned, “or officials are gonna hang by the neck until they’re dead Arise and fight! “您不是要回到宪法，美国在贵国政府， ”他intoned ， “或官员是在哪里坑由颈部，直到他们死亡的出现和扑灭！ If a Jew comes near you, run a sword through him.” As Posse ideology rippled across the distressed farm belt, violence followed.如果一个犹太人来你附近，运行剑通过他“波塞思想波及全国痛心，农场带，其次是暴力。 Several deadly confrontations between Posse adherents and law enforcement made national headlines; Geraldo Rivera descended on Nebraska to document the “Seeds of Hate” in America’s heartland.几个致命之间的对抗，波塞信徒和执法取得了国家的头条新闻;热拉尔多里韦拉的后裔就内布拉斯加州的文件“的种子，恨”在美国的心脏地带。 By 1987, Gale’s rhetoric had escalated further.到1987年，烈风的修辞已进一步升级。 He told his followers that “You’ve got an enemy government running around its source and its location is Washington, DC, and the federal buildings they’ve built with your tax money all over the cities in this land.”他说，他的追随者说， “你已经得到一个敌人，政府四处其来源和它的位置是哥伦比亚特区华盛顿，和联邦大厦，他们已经建立了与您的纳税钱，所有的城市在这片土地” 。
Hucksters and charlatans prowled the Midwest as the farm crisis deepened, selling desperate farmers expensive seminars and prepackaged legal defenses “guaranteed” to cancel debts and forestall foreclosure. hucksters和charlatans prowled中西部地区作为农场危机深化，绝望的农民出售昂贵的研讨会和法律预先防“保证”取消债务和预先赎。 Since the gold standard had been abandoned in 1933, they argued, money had no inherent value, and so neither did their debts.由于黄金标准已放弃在1933年，他们认为，金钱并没有内在价值，所以也没有他们的债务。 All they had to do, farmers were told, was opt out of the system by sending a letter to the appropriate authorities renouncing their driver’s license, birth certificate, and social security number.所有他们不得不这样做，农民被告知，是选择退出该系统通过发送了一封信给适当当局放弃他们的驾驶执照，出生证明，及社会安全号码。 That number was allegedly tied to a secret government account held in a secure subterranean facility in lower Manhattan, where citizens are used as collateral against international debts issued by the Fed and everyone’s name is on a master list, spelled in capital letters — the very same capital letters used in the official court documents detailing foreclosure and other actions against them.这个数字据称绑一个秘密帐户，政府举行在一个安全的地下设施，在曼哈顿下城，那里的公民是用来作为抵押品对国际债务所发出的美联储和每个人的名字是在一个总表，说明在英文大写字母-很相同的英文大写字母用在正式的法庭文件，详列赎和其他行动对付他们。 The capital letter name was nothing but an artificial construct, they were told, a legal “straw man.” It wasn’t them — natural, live, flesh and blood men.大写字母的名称只不过是一个人工建造，他们被告知，法律上的“稻草的人。 ”这不是他们-自然，生活，有血有肉的男子。
Bill Gale died on April 28, 1988, three months after being sentenced in federal court for conspiracy, tax crimes, and mailing death threats to the Internal Revenue Service.条例草案烈风死亡， 1988年4月28日， 3个月后，被判处在联邦法院串谋，税务犯罪，和邮寄的死亡威胁到内部收入服务。 By that time, the farm crisis had begun to recede.到那个时候，农场的危机已开始消退。 Posse ideology simmered for the next few years, morphing into the “Christian Patriot” movement, which sanded down some of the roughest racist and anti-Semitic edges while retaining the core beliefs of Constitutional fundamentalism.波塞思想哥伦布到底埋葬在哪里未来几年，变形成为“基督教爱国者”运动，用砂纸一些粗糙的种族主义和反犹太主义的优势，同时保留核心的信仰宪法的原教旨主义。 The patriots saw themselves as “sovereign citizens,” unlike the “federal citizens” who had been created by the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.爱国者看到自己是“公民主权” ，不像“联邦公民的”谁已经建立了由第14修正案的保证平等的法律保护。
The deadly confrontations between federal agents and extremists at Ruby Ridge in 1992 and Waco, Texas in 1993 brought latent anger with the federal government back to a boil.致命之间的对抗，联邦特工和极端分子在红宝石岭在1992年和韦科，得克萨斯州在1993年所带来的潜在的愤怒与联邦政府回到煮沸。 The militia movement of the 1990s built on Posse tenets of county- based, self-organized paramilitary groups led by citizens expressing their basic Constitutional rights.民兵运动20世纪90年代兴建的波塞原理，县为基础，自组织的准军事集团为首的公民表达他们的基本宪法权利。 Most groups stuck with conducting survivalist training camps and filing bogus liens against houses owned by local judges.最团体坚持进行生存训练营地，并提交虚假留置权对房屋所拥有的本地法官。 But a few did much more.但有几个没有更多的工作。
In 1993, a Michigan farmer and survivalist named James Nichols was pulled over for speeding.在1993年，美国密歇根州的农民和生存命名为詹姆斯尼科尔斯拖出以上为超速驾驶的行为。 Instead of simply paying the fine, he argued in court that his “sovereign citizen” status made him immune to prosecution.而不是简单缴交罚款，他在法庭上辩称，他的“主权公民”的地位使他免受起诉。 That same year, James’ brother Terry tried to pay off a $17,000 debt with a fake check issued by a radical “family farm preservation” group run by Posse adherents.同年，詹姆斯的兄弟特里试图还清一一点七万美元债务与假检查所发出的一激进的“家庭农场保存”组办的波塞信徒。 Two years later, Terry Nichols helped to bring the Posse’s anti-government hatred to its ultimate fruition.两年后，特里尼科尔斯帮助，使波塞的反政府的仇恨，以它的最终成果。 On April 18, 1995, he and a friend named Timothy McVeigh loaded 108 fifty-pound bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer into a Ryder truck. 4月18日， 1995年，他和一个朋友名为蒂莫西麦克维加载108 50 -磅袋硝酸铵肥料成为莱德卡车。 The next day, McVeigh bombed the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people on the second anniversary of Waco.第二天，麦克维炸毁murrah联邦大楼在俄克拉何马城，炸死168人关于第二个周年韦科。
After the attack, the Feds began cracking down on white supremacist groups, including one called the “Montana Freemen,” who were, in the words of hate-group expert Daniel Levitas, “the direct ideological descendants of the Posse Comitatus.” (Levitas’ book, The Terrorist Next Door, contains the definitive account of Bill Gale and the Posse.) The Freemen were arrested in their isolated compound after a threemonth standoff with the FBI.袭击事件后，联邦调查局开始严厉打击白人优越团体，其中包括所谓的“蒙大拿自由人， ”谁获得，在的话，憎恨组专家丹尼尔莱韦塔斯“ ，直接的思想子孙的波塞comitatus 。 ” （莱韦塔斯'书，恐怖隔壁，包含明确的交代条例草案烈风和波塞） ，自由人被拘捕，在他们的孤立复合后三个月的僵局，与美国联邦调查局。 At trial, they filed an array of bizarre documents citing the Fed, the gold standard, the 14th Amendment, and the Uniform Commercial Code, but to no avail.在审讯中，他们提交了一系列奇怪的文件为由，美联储的黄金标准，第十四修正案，以及对统一商业代码，但不得要领。 They were sent to the maximum security “Supermax” federal prison in Florence, Colorado, where they remain today.他们被送往最高安全“ supermax ”联邦监狱在佛罗伦斯，科罗拉多州，在那里他们仍然是今天。
But the appeal of their anti-government dogma didn’t disappear.但呼吁其反政府的教条并没有消失。 The Freemen continued to attract sympathizers outside Supermax walls.该自由人继续吸引同情者外supermax墙壁。 Some collected the documents the Freemen filed during their trial and began offering them for sale via adver tisements in “America’s Bulletin,” a newsletter espousing Posse- style anti-government theories that is widely distributed throughout the prison system by white supremacists.一些收集的文件自由人提起期间，对他们的审判，并开始为他们提供出售的经adver tisements在“美国的公告， ”时事通讯信奉波塞式反政府的理论，这是广泛分布在整个监狱系统由白人至上主义。
In October 2004, a prisoner named Michael Burpee arrived at the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center in downtown Baltimore. 2004年10月，一名囚犯任命Michael burpee抵达位于马里兰州的惩教中心的调整，在市中心的巴尔的摩。 Burpee had recently been convicted in Florida of trafficking PCP to Maryland. burpee最近已被定罪，在佛罗里达州的五氯酚贩运到马里兰州。 Hoping for leniency, he pled guilty, only to receive a twenty seven-year prison sentence dictated by harsh federal sentencing guidelines.希望从宽处理，他pled有罪，只收到27可判处一年有期徒刑取决于苛刻联邦的判刑指引。 Desperate for a way out, he began listening to someone — presumably a fellow prisoner — who explained how the charges were all part of a secret government conspiracy against him.绝望的一条出路，他开始听有人-假定研究员囚犯-谁解释，如何收费，都是一个组成部分，政府的秘密阴谋反对他。 Then Burpee was brought up on new federal drug charges in Maryland, and shipped north.然后burpee是带来了新的联邦药品收费在马里兰州，北和发运。 He carried with him a pile of documents that were remarkably similar to those that had been filed by the Montana Freemen.他与他进行了一堆文件，有显着相似，那些已提交由蒙大拿自由人。
In Baltimore, Burpee found a group of inmates at the margins of society, people like Willie Mitchell and company who were staring at the full force of the federal government.在巴尔的摩， burpee发现了一批犯人在社会的边缘，人们想的Willie米切尔和公司谁被凝望的全部力量联邦政府。 As one defense attorney representing a flesh-and-blood defendant put it, they “saw a freight train coming and felt three feet tall.” Soon the unorthodox legal filings and courtroom outbursts began to multiply.作为一个辩护律师代表的血肉联系，被告提出，他们“看到一列货运列车，并认为未来3呎高的” 。很快，非正统的法律诉状和审判爆发开始繁殖。 It was, one public defender later explained, “like an infection that was invading our client population of pre-trial detainees.” Burpee appears to have been patient zero in the epidemic.这是一公设辩护人稍后解释说， “像一感染，这是侵略我们的客户人口的审前被拘留者” 。 burpee似乎已在病人的零疫情。 For over a year, he harangued his lawyers and judge about the conspiracy and spread the word in the Baltimore lockup.超过一年，他harangued他的律师和法官关于阴谋和蔓延一词在巴尔的摩锁死。 Then, in a stroke of bad luck for the public defender’s office, the US Attorney’s office decided to drop the charges against Burpee — perhaps reasoning that he wasn’t worth the hassle considering that he had already been sentenced to twenty-seven years.然后，在中风的坏运气为公设辩护人办公室，美国联邦检察官办公室决定放弃指控burpee -也许推理，他是不值得的麻烦考虑，他已被判处2 0-七年。 For Burpee’s peers, the decision imbued the flesh-and-blood defense with legitimacy and the hope of freedom.为burpee的同侪，决定充满了血肉联系，防御与合法性，并希望自由。
Before long, the relatives of the defendants were scanning Web sites like www.redemptionservice.com, which offers maps showing how Satanic runes were secretly incorporated into the street plan of Washington, DC, and a deluxe package of instructions for renouncing one’s social security number for only $3,900, payable by check or money order.不久之前，亲属与讼人分别为扫描的网站一样， www.redemptionservice.com ，它提供的地图，显示如何撒旦鲁内斯被秘密纳入街计划，哥伦比亚特区华盛顿，和一家豪华包装的指示，放弃一个人的社会安全号码仅$ 3900 ，所缴交的支票或汇票。
Like the Midwestern farmers before them, the Baltimore inmates were susceptible to the notion that the federal government was engaged in a massive, historic plot to deprive them of life, liberty, and property.像中西部农民面前，巴尔的摩囚犯容易概念，即联邦政府进行了大规模，历史性的阴谋剥夺了他们的生命，自由和财产。 Such suspicions are prevalent in certain pockets of the black community — that year, a study from the Rand Corporation found that over 25 percent of African Americans surveyed believed the AIDS virus was developed by the government, and 12 percent thought it was released into the population by the CIA.这种怀疑是流行在某些口袋黑人社区-这一年，一项研究，从兰德公司发现，超过2 5％的非裔美国人的被访者认为艾滋病病毒是由政府，和1 2％ ，认为这是释放到人口由中央情报局。 And black separatist groups like the Nation of Islam — also fond of conspiracy theories — have long cultivated members through the prison system; some of these groups have explicitly adopted the language of constitutional fundamentalists. Given these developments, Levitas told me, “I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner.”
This, then, was how Willie Mitchell came to draw on the accumulated layers of three decades of right-wing paranoia and demand that his case be dismissed “in accord with House Joint Resolution 192, and Public Law 73-10″ — laws that involved the abandonment of the gold standard and the Federal Reserve. And it explained why Shawn Gardner kept insisting that he be addressed as “Shawn-Earl: Gardner,” rather than the capital-letter SHAWN GARDNER printed on the indictment: he thought that if he could convince the court to call him by his “natural” name, it would be tantamount to admitting that the charges had been filed against someone else.
On the morning of January 10, 2006, two months after the first flesh-and-blood hearing, Gardner returned to Judge Davis’s courtroom. Moments after Davis arrived, Gardner stood up. “I object,” he said, over and over, until Judge Davis had finally had enough. “Do you know what you’re doing?” he asked Gardner. “You are committing suicide in broad daylight. There are public suicides in this country far too often. People jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge. People walk into their workplaces with a gun and put the gun up to their head and pull the trigger. People slash their wrists. I don’t want you to join that community, but that’s what you’re doing, sir.”
Gardner tried to argue that the court had no power over him under “common law.” “At common law,” Judge Davis replied, “you were property. You were bought and sold just like those Timberlands on your feet today can be bought and sold. That’s what your ancestors were, some of them, and that is what my ancestors were, some of them.”
“You have invoked ideas formulated and advanced by people who think less of you than they think of dirt,” Davis continued. “The extremists who have concocted these ideas that you are now advancing in this courtroom are laughing their heads off. You are giving them everything they ever wished for. They should be paying you to do what you are doing. They are going to make you the poster child for their movement. When you complete this suicide, they will honor you because you are doing their work, better and more effectively than any of them ever dreamed they could do. Some of them — ” “I object,” said Gardner, interrupting. “The government wants to do the same thing anyway. So what’s the difference?”
Gardner, unrepentant, was escorted from the courtroom. And so the tenets of Posse Comitatus continued their long, strange journey, from the racist, hate-filled mind of William Gale to four black defendants on trial for their life in Baltimore federal court.
A little more than a year after the November 2005 hearing, the flesh-and-blood phenomenon took another twist. A key part of the conspiracy indictment against Mitchell et al was the allegation that the defendants acted together in pursuit of criminal goals. The seemingly choreographed speeches and the identical filings, all submitted on the same day and mailed by the same person, suggested that the four defendants were going to great lengths to coordinate their actions, despite being housed in separate prison facilities and having no obvious means of communication. Ergo, evidence that the conspiracy was continuing in jail. The US Attorney’s office also added new charges of felony obstruction of justice, citing the disruptive nature of the fleshand- blood defense. The prosecutors weren’t just rejecting the defense as an argument for innocence. They were saying that it was, itself, a crime.
Undaunted, Mitchell and company continued making courtroom speeches and filing more nonsensical motions. One, for instance, claimed that Judge Davis’ court only had jurisdiction over crimes committed in federally owned “forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and enclaves.”
None of these arguments had a prayer of overturning the charges. But they had an impact nonetheless. They made a long, complex trial longer and more complex still. Seeking the death penalty is rightfully arduous — it requires legal justifications for the penalty itself, enhanced scrutiny over jury selection, an additional penalty phase after a conviction, and so on. Conspiracy charges create further legal burdens. And the way Mitchell et al chose to deal with their attorneys — not dismissing them outright, but asking them to sign a peculiar “contract” that would essentially prohibit them from mounting a defense — created more problems. If the defendants weren’t dealt with carefully, they might be able to appeal by claiming that they had been inadequately represented. The last thing Judge Davis wanted was for an appellate court to throw out a verdict and send the case back to Baltimore to start all over again. According to a source close to the court, dealing with the flesh and blood defense has been “one of the greatest challenges Davis has faced in twenty years as a judge, by far.”
By mid-2007, the federal prosecutors were starting to run low on a vital resource: time. As years go by, memories fade, police officers retire or transfer, informants change their mind, and juries wonder, why, if the case is so straightforward, it took so long to make. On September 6, 2007, prosecutors withdrew the death penalty for all four defendants.
Nobody in the Baltimore federal courthouse is willing to state, or even speculate on the record, that Mitchell and his cohorts may have averted death with the flesh-and-blood defense. There are other possibilities involving evidence, witnesses, and Justice Department policy. But the elaborate processes of federal capital cases weren’t built to accommodate farcical pro se filings and challenges. Traffic offenses, tax cases — even farm foreclosures — are one thing. When the end goal is execution, even the most ludicrous defenses are taken seriously.
On January 8, 2008, the case of United States of America v. Willie Mitchell et al convened once again in the main courtroom of the federal courthouse. The lawyers arrived first, chatting in the manner of people who had spent nearly four years and counting on the odyssey of this case. The defendants came next. While Shawn Gardner wore the blue work shirt of a lifer in state prison, Willie Mitchell sported comfortable baggy jeans and a stylish black shirt. Mitchell sauntered to his table, and spied the lone spectator in the courtroom’s auditorium-style gallery of one hundred- plus seats, a slender black woman who looked to be in her late twenties. His eyes lit up as he smiled and mouthed “How are you?” “I’m good, I’m good” she murmured. “Your new lawyer — get his card!”
Judge Davis arrived last, emerging from a wooden door behind the bench, beneath oil portraits of judges from days gone by. The hearing will be short, he said; the purpose is to establish a schedule for future motions, and ultimately the trial. Davis and the lawyers spent the next twenty minutes trying find eight weeks of available courtroom time for ten busy lawyers plus the judge. Then, apropos of nothing, Shelton Harris stood up. “Good morning your honor,” he began. Davis saw where this was going and cut him off. “I haven’t recognized you yet, Mr. Harris. You’ll have time to talk later,” he said. “I accept your offer,” Harris replied softly, and sat down.
The scheduling discussion continued; Mitchell rested his head in his arms as though bored. Finally, Judge Davis allowed Harris to speak. Harris launched into the now familiar oration — “I request you, the judge, close the accounts” He spoke rapidly in a low, gravelly voice, as if he’d worked hard to memorize the speech and didn’t want to leave anything out.
Harris finished, sat, and Judge Davis turned to the defendants. The speech you just gave has no legal meaning whatsoever, he said sternly. They were words in the English language, but they have no meaning as a matter of law. If, in future proceedings, you persist — even politely — in making these speeches, you face a severe risk of being expelled from the courtroom. The court also may conclude that you are waiving your right to appointed counsel, in which case you would have to represent yourself. That would be a sad day. “We are in recess,” Davis said. He turned back toward the door to leave.
Then several things happened at once. Shawn Gardner, handcuffed, slumped in the arms of the federal marshals, who seized him beneath his armpits and dragged him across the courtroom toward the door. Willie Mitchell raised his right hand to speak, intent on giving his version of Harris’ speech, but the marshals grabbed his arm and forced it down behind his back toward his left wrist, which was already cuffed. Mitchell struggled and yelled at his lawyer, “They got my arm in a chicken wing!” The marshals forcibly moved Martin and Harris toward the door. Judge Davis watched with consternation as they were dragged from his court.
Willie Mitchell and company won’t go on trial until September, if then, and they won’t face the death penalty, even though they probably deserve it if anyone does. But they will probably be convicted and spend the rest of their lives in federal prison, never to be heard from again, because in the end, the flesh-and-blood defense is no defense at all. The 14th Amendment didn’t revoke Shawn Gardner’s natural citizenship — it gave him protection under the law, and paved the way for another black man to judge his case. There’s no international cabal of Jewish bankers conspiring against him — one of his lawyers, a professor at Howard University Law School, is Jewish. The secret histories and grand conspiracies that have fueled decades of right-wing paranoia, morphing to accommodate one doomed cause after another until finding an unlikely temporary home in a Baltimore lockup, are lies and nothing more.
As the marshals shoved the four men toward the courtroom door, back to the prison they’ll never leave, they shook their heads and looked at each other smiling, as if to say right, right, isn’t it always just like this? One of them let out a chuckle that rose above the din. Judge Davis turned to the court reporter. “Let the record show,” he said, “that Mr. Harris is laughing.”
Have Your Say: Victims of the Drug War Are Forced to Resort to Bizarre Legal Defenses
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