The chilling and inspiring sentencing of the Shoe Bomber
“We are not afraid of any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans.”
I had not thought in a long time about Richard Reid, who attempted the shoe bombing of a passenger jet on December 22, 2001.
You can read the indictment here, and the government’s sentencing memo here.
I thought about him early this morning when I read an old post of mine from 2011, about his sentencing by Judge William Young of the U.S. District Court in Boston in January 2003.
It brings tears to my eyes every time I read it.
Here is the sentencing transcript in full:
Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court imposes upon you.
On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the custody of the United States Attorney General. On counts 2, 3, 4 and 7, the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence on each count to run consecutive one with the other. That’s 80 years.
On Count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years consecutive to the 80 years just imposed. The Court imposes upon you on each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000 for the aggregate fine of $2 million.
The Court accepts the government’s recommendation with respect to restitution and orders restitution in the amount of $298.17 to Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to American Airlines.
The Court imposes upon you the $800 special assessment.
The Court imposes upon you five years supervised release simply because the law requires it. But the life sentences are real life sentences so I need not go any further.
This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes. It is a fair and a just sentence. It is a righteous sentence. Let me explain this to you.
We are not afraid of any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been through the fire before. There is all too much war talk here. And I say that to everyone with the utmost respect.
Here in this court where we deal with individuals as individuals, and care for individuals as individuals, as human beings we reach out for justice.
You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to call you a soldier gives you far too much stature. Whether it is the officers of government who do it or your attorney who does it, or that happens to be your view, you are a terrorist.
And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not treat with terrorists. We do not sign documents with terrorists.
We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice.
So war talk is way out of line in this court. You’re a big fellow. But you’re not that big. You’re no warrior. I know warriors. You are a terrorist. A species of criminal guilty of multiple attempted murders.
In a very real sense Trooper Santiago had it right when first you were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the press and where the TV crews were and you said you’re no big deal. You’re no big deal.
What your counsel, what your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys have grappled with and what I have as honestly as I know how tried to grapple with, is why you did something so horrific. What was it that led you here to this courtroom today? I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I ask you to search your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led you to do what you are guilty and admit you are guilty of doing.
And I have an answer for you. It may not satisfy you. But as I search this entire record it comes as close to understanding as I know.
It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You hate our freedom. Our individual freedom. Our individual freedom to live as we choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not believe as we individually choose.
Here, in this society, the very winds carry freedom. They carry it everywhere from sea to shining sea. It is because we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful courtroom. So that everyone can see, truly see that justice is administered fairly, individually, and discretely.
It is for freedom’s seek that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your behalf and have filed appeals, will go on in their, their representation of you before other judges. We care about it. Because we all know that the way we treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties.
Make no mistake though. It is yet true that we will bear any burden; pay any price, to preserve our freedoms.
Look around this courtroom. Mark it well. The world is not going to long remember what you or I say here. Day after tomorrow it will be forgotten. But this, however, will long endure. Here, in this courtroom, and courtrooms all across America, the American people will gather to see that justice, individual justice, justice, not war, individual justice is in fact being done.
The very President of the United States through his officers will have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged, and juries of citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence democratically, to mold and shape and refine our sense of justice.
See that flag, Mr. Reid? That’s the flag of the United States of America. That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag still stands for freedom. You know it always will. Custody, Mr. Officer. Stand him down.
REID: That flag will be brought down on the Day of Judgment and you will see in front of your Lord and my Lord and then we will know. (Whereupon the defendant was removed from the courtroom.)
[Judge William Young]
Terrorist Richard Reid, who tried to blow up a jetliner with a shoe-bomb after 9/11, says he failed because that’s what God wanted.
In a letter from the supermax prison in Colorado where he is serving a life sentence, Reid told a researcher he believes the bungled 2001 attempt to kill 197 passengers on American Airlines Flight 63 was permitted by Islamic law.
“I admit many people would dispute that and disagree with me on that point,” the British-born Reid, 41, wrote.
“However, at the same time I also believe that it wasn’t supposed to happen, not because it was displeasing to God … rather because it was not either my time to die nor that of those on the plane with me, and he had other plans for me which include my staying in prison and other matters which I may not be aware of as of yet.”
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Comments
This begs the question why so many pseudocons and neocons advocate for allowing Islamist vermin to immigrate to our country.
Some judges are born and bred to be good at the job.
Judge Young shows every appearance of being one.
“The very President of the United States through his officers will have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged, and juries of citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence democratically, to mold and shape and refine our sense of justice.”
Thank you for sharing this judge’s quote. He understands what our Constitutional Republic is about.
This concept ought to be taught to anyone who presumes to run for office.
I was humming right along with the good judge’s sentencing until he got to the phrase “It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You hate our freedom.”
In 2003, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with that sentiment. It’s a moving statement.
However, I have come to realize that the jihadists do their thing because Islam tells them to do it. They have blown up Russian planes, Somalian planes, Egyptian planes, French planes, and who knows what other planes, as well as American planes.
Our freedoms are not the trigger, dogmatic Islam is. The sooner we recognize that, address it, and counter it, the better.
“However, at the same time I also believe that it wasn’t supposed to happen, not because it was displeasing to God … rather because it was not either my time to die nor that of those on the plane with me, and he had other plans for me which include my staying in prison and other matters which I may not be aware of as of yet.”
He subscribes to that evil Islamist Perversion, that purports to absolve any human of any evil act because it’s all God’s fault.
All Jews and Christians, however, hold human beings responsible for the evil that they do.
I am not so inspired by this silly judge’s rant against dealing with Islamic jihadists as enemy combatants. We are, after all, in the midst of a declared war against “those who attacked us on 9/11.”
Can he not take pride in playing the role that civilian courts can play in this war without asserting in a giant steaming heap of earnest error that this is the only way, consistent with America’s system of Liberty, to fight back against an ideology of mass murder? And then he fishes around–in the midst of a declared war!–for what could have possibly motivated this Islamic jihadist. This idiot should NOT be taken seriously. Sorry to see him being promoted here on LI.