Here’s a description of what the 10 Miami-Dade Appeals judges “struggled with.” I’d suggest it is not something a sixth grade student would have struggled with.
In what the newspaper said – well let me let it speak for itself: “But in November, in a legal rarity, the court decided that all 10 judges should be allowed to weigh in on Connolly’s conviction. Connolly has remained imprisoned.” (my emphasis)
It sure is a legal rarity because it is almost never done that the ten judges sit after three other judges considered an issue when two out of three ruled in favor of the one party. It is also a rarity, or at least it should be, that a guy who has been deemed wrongfully committed is kept in prison.
The issue here is so simple that you can see the hands of the Department of Justice (DOJ), (“Department of Injustice?), all over the case. Connolly never should have been tried in Florida on these charges in the first place. But don’t think I say that because I’m some kind of cheerleader for Connolly. I’m not. When he was convicted in Boston in 2002 I believed he had a fair trial. I thought his sentence was somewhat excessive because it was based in part on things the jury found he had not done. (Only in the First Circuit are the charges even if not proven added into a sentence.)
Later, I changed my mind. He should have been given a new trial. In a disingenuous opinion the First Circuit Court of Appeals refused to grant him one event though a critical witness against him committed perjury during the trial. I’ve written about all this before.
The reason Connolly should never have been tried in Florida is not because he did not do the things he is alleged to have done but because he did them. It was his job to do them. As an FBI agent involved in handling a Top Echelon Informant in exchange for their information he protected them. That’s what the Top Echelon program is all about.
The law as I understand it is that if a federal agent is doing his job then a state has no right to charge him for anything he did pursuant to his job under the Supremacy Clause. How Florida got away with doing it (it really wasn’t Florida as I’ll explain in a minute) is because Connolly needed the DOJ has to assert that claim. That, of course, was impossible. The DOJ was behind his prosecution.
The other reason Connolly never should have been charged is that he was charged with the same offense in Boston and found not responsible by a federal court jury. He was then indicted again for the same thing. That would have been all right if the indictment was the result of Florida’s independent determination that he should be charged; but it wasn’t. The state was aided and abetted (if not forced) to charge Connolly by the DOJ. The same group of people working with the federal government who lost in Boston went to Florida for a second bite of the apple and tried the case again.
Our Constitution provides no person shall be tried twice for the same crime. Unfortunately Connolly was not given that protection. Why this was never litigated astonishes me.
That’s all water over the dam now; a guy who never shot or injured anyone has been in prison almost 15 years while those who murdered upwards of 20 people like John Martorano who actually did the murder in Florida are free.
Martorano murdered Roger Wheeler in Oklahoma because John Callahan wanted to take over his business. Knowing Callahan was the only one who could link him to that murder he murdered Callahan in Florida. Martorano walked Connolly into the deal to get a deal for himself. The whole situation is so sordid especially since the true facts are obscured by a biased media repeating lies over and over again about Connolly it can get one sick at the injustice of it all. Lady Justice must cry anytime she thinks of this.
On Lincoln’s birthday the Miami-Dade Appeals court had to decide if Connolly’s conviction of second degree murder by gun was valid. He had been acquitted of first degree murder and conspiracy to murder. Connolly argued he could not have been convicted of that charge because it was necessary that he have possession of the gun or be present in or about the scene when the murder by gun was committed. The person with the gun was John Martorano. Connolly was up on the Cape at the time. There was no evidence, none, that he knew this was happening.
The evidence against Connolly was that three or so weeks before the murder he met with Whitey Bulger and Stevie Flemmi, two men of evil but both of whom were FBI informants being protected by the FBI, and told them the FBI was going to pressure Callahan into talking about Wheeler’s murder. (To suggest Martorano did not know he was in the jackpot without that information is absurd. Read his book Murderman Hitman and see how many people he murdered to stop them from testifying on others.}
The meeting took place in Massachusetts. Connolly was wearing a gun as an FBI agent at that time. He was 1200 miles from and it was a month before Martorano shot Callahan in the head with a gun unconnected to that of Connolly. It is obvious Connolly’s gun played no role in the murder nor did he.
Murder by gun is an aggravating factor because the gun has to be used as part of the crime not because someone may have handled a gun a month before the murder. Otherwise, if I went into a gun shop on February 14 and bought a gun planning to kill J.W. Wiseacre; and then on February 21 I went to Wiseacre’s home without the gun and strangled him, I could be charged with murder by gun. Your sixth grade friend could figure that the law never was intended to apply to that situation.
The issue is quite simple and clear and should take an honest judge a few minutes to decide it. All Connolly needs is a few good and honest judges. If he gets them then he should be freed lickety-split; if not, then we are dealing with something quite dastardly in America.
Hopefully Connolly will be home in time for the St. Patrick’s day parade.
Danc, With regard to your comments about the possibility that John Connolly tipped off Whitey and Flemmi about the identities of other informants is truly an incorrect assumption. There has never been any testimony given that even alluded to John Connolly tipping of the identities of other criminal informants. This is a misleading charge and/or accusation that may have came from the news media. In a deposition of Stephen Flemmi, taken by AUSA Fred Wyshak, in the company of members of the Mass State Police and a member of the DEA, Flemmi was asked if John Connolly ever asked him to kill anyone. The Answer: NO! Flemmi was asked if he ever told Connolly about any individual he planned to kill. The Answer: NO! Flemmi was asked if he ever told Connolly about any murder that he did commit. The Answer: NO! In fact, Flemmi stated, in words to the effect, that it would be foolish for him to admit to Connolly that he killed anyone as Connolly would have arrested him! Flemmi’s deposition was so powerful that the DOJ/USA understood that Flemmi’s interrogatories would have come back to haunt them by proving John Connolly had no knowledge of any killings or planned killings of anyone by Whitey, Flemmi or any other criminal informant. Fearing that this deposition would confirm this fact, an un-suspecting judge was duped into placing it under seal. It was only after some legal filings that Connolly’s defense was able to get a partial transcript of the deposition which will be used in future filings of prosecutorial misconduct. This is not the end of John Connolly’s story!
I assumed that james connolly is John’s brother. If I got that wrong, apologies to all concerned!
Matt: It was nice to see that Connolly appreciates your efforts on his behalf. I agree that the gun charge is complete bullshit, but I can’t get on board the bandwagon as long as I think Connolly disclosed the identity of FBI informants to characters like Bulger and Flemmi. This would be a death sentence, no? I’ve tried to look at things from Connolly’s point of view, but I can’t get past this part of his past.
Matt, Your recent post was point on, however; I would like to explain to your reading public a few facts regarding John Connolly’s conviction in Boston and his trial and conviction in Florida. First, the newspapers are always claiming that John Connolly will be getting out of prison because of a “TECHNICALITY” regarding the 1982 murder of John Callahan. Here is where everyone should be enlightened. There is a four year statute of limitations regarding second degree murder, even en if John Connolly was involved, which he was not. The Boston Jury heard testimony on a myriad of matters and came to the overwhelming conclusion that John Connolly had absolutely nothing to do with Callahan’s murder. Of the fourteen [14] predicate acts that John Connolly was charged with in his Boston trial, he was only convicted of four of those acts. Ironically, all of the four predicate acts that Connolly was found guilty of came from the testimony of one Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, which was suborned and perjured testimony. This fact will come out after John Connolly is release from his wrongful incarceration. Now, with the support of the USA’s office in Boston, AUSA Fred Wyshak traveled to Florida to convince the Florida State’s attorney’s office to bring charges of murder against John Connolly for the murder of John Callahan. He convinced the State’s Attorney that there was no double-jeopardy concerns in that Florida was a different “sovereign” and double jeopardy would not come into play. What a crock of BS! At this point I should point out why Wyshak decided to seek murder charges against Connolly; it was a result of Wyshak questioning John Connolly about other FBI Special Agents who took money! Wyshak said that if John Connolly did not give him names of agents who took money he would get him indicted in Florida for murder. John Connolly told him, in words to the effect, “what, do you want me to make up names to save myself; well, Connolly told him what he could do with this threat in colorful terms. I must digress at this point to make a comment regarding the Boston newspapers reporting on John Connolly. Many of the reporters have written books replete with erroneous and misleading accounts of what allegedly occurred in Boston and attributed to John Connolly and the FBI. Mark Twain had a quote that is appropriate at this time: “If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.” John Connolly is presently waiting for a decision of the entire appellate court in Miami to render an opinion as to the wrongful conviction of Connolly and set him free. The issue of the use, possession and carrying a gun is the main issue regarding the “Second Degree Murder while armed” charge. Florida statues clearly state in Rodriguez v. State, that Connolly must have had possession of the “ACTUAL WEAPON’ used in the commission of the murder. Well, as Matt pointed out, John Connolly was 1200 miles away in Massachusetts at the time of the murder. His service weapon cannot be considered in this case or any other scenario. My last comment regarding the “protection” afforded John Connolly’s Top Echelon Informants; the only protection given to Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi was to protect their identities as informants, nothing else. The “Protection” the newspapers allude to actually originates from the US Department of Justice and the USA’s Office. These departments are the “protectors” of Whitey and Flemmi, not John Connolly. One question that should be underscored is how dose Connolly prevent outside agencies form instituting an investigation and then seek prosecution? He cannot! It is the DOJ and the USA who have the power to prevent the prosecution of Whitey or Flemmi [or any other Top Echelon Informant]. This is the major point that the reading public is not made aware of. I hope that this will help to make your reading public more aware of what really has been done to John Connolly at the hands of the DOJ, USA and the Florida Judicial System [that needs help at every level]. Future posts will be prepared to keep your devoted readers informed.
Happy Valentines Day. Excellent post. Connolly’s Constitutional Rights were violated in denying him a speedy trial. It is six years since conviction and no decision yet. His double jeopardy rights were violated. He was already found not guilty by a jury of his peers in Boston on identical facts. His Due Process Rights were violated by his being sentenced on a matter where the Statue of Limitations had expired. Every day he’s spent in custody in Florida has been an illegal act by that State. 2. Should you delay your book Boston Bamboozled? Shouldn’t you publish ” Diddler on the Roof” focusing on Epstein’s escapades. You could explore the question inquiring minds want to know. Who was the real Godfather of the Epstein child sex ring? Shouldn’t Epstein and his pals be held accountable by the ICC? Isn’t trafficking in minors for illicit purposes a violation of international law? American courts seem to be totally compromised.
Matt
This is the program to which I have been referring:
Matt – the tv program to which I referred has Connolly as a long-time admirer, since boyhood, of Whitey. It also had him feeding info to Whitey, but covering up for Whitey as a supposed informant in the huge sting against the Italian mafia in Boston – “to divert attention from himself, Connolly cleverly gave credit to Whitey in all reports.” There is also the suggestion that in early reports, Connolly had Whitey’s name omitted from some reports. According to the tv program.
Sentencing guidelines are hugely problematic, because they do indeed allow “relevant conduct” to be taken into account, even though not directly related to the particular crime as to which their has been a guilty plea or a finding of guilt. Even worse, the “evidence” to support the “relevant conduct” can be literally anything, with the government’s gloss on it, and the standard of proof is not beyond a reasonable doubt – just more likely than not. The Supremes have said that’s OK.
Thank you for your continued efforts…