Senator Tom Cotton Demands Answers for the Leniency Given by Department of Justice in a BLM Arson-Murder – Opinion

Montez Lee (a career criminal) appeared at Federal District Court St. Paul MN to be sentenced for arson in a Minneapolis pawnshop. The incident resulted the death a victim during peaceful but non-violent George Floyd mourning violence in May 2020. Lee is eligible to receive federal sentencing guidelines and could be sentenced for up to 20 years. This is a quote from the pre-sentencencing report.

Mr. Lee’s criminal history category is therefore IV. (PSR ¶ 40.) The resulting Guideline range would be 235–293 month’s imprisonment. (PSR ¶ 78.) Because this exceeds the statutory maximum term of 240 months, the Guideline range is 235–240 months’ imprisonment. Id., citing U.S.S.G. § 5G1.1(c)(1).)

Somehow, something funny happened. At some point, Lee’s high-minded opposition to police brutality became more of a concern to prosecutors than the life man he killed or even the property and livelihood he destroyed.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Calhoun-Lopez said in court Friday that the evidence was clear Lee did not intend to hurt anybody and that “his reasons in this case for setting that fire matter.”

Calhoun Lopez cited Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words saying “we’ve got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard.” Calhoun-Lopez said he believed that Lee was engaging in King’s words.

A restitution request of $842 was made by Stewart’s family to cover the cost of his cremation, according to Calhoun-Lopez. The pawn shop did not request restitution.

The AUSA does the same.

See Fig. 2. The raised fist of Mr. Lee and his boldness in committing this crime are telling. It is quite telling to see the raised fist Mr. Lee displayed and his brazenness in committing the crime (see Fig. He was extremely misguided and had terrible, impossible consequences. But he appears to have believed that he was, in Dr. King’s eloquent words, engaging in “the language of the unheard.”

…

…Mr. Lee had a plan that would turn his life around. Unfortunately, this plan was destroyed by the COVID-19 pandemic. (PSR ¶ 48.) He would benefit greatly from long-term prison programming. However, to offer training, care and treatment, a longer sentence is not necessary.

…

Seventh Circuit Chief Judge Richard Posner spoke out about the difficulties in sendingencing someone who had recklessly taken another human life. 16 F.3d at 205–06. He discussed “the difference in culpability between endangerment and death,” and described what philosophers call “moral luck”:

True, in a system where only intents and actions count and not consequences do not, there’s no way to tell the difference between dangerous behavior that causes harm or dangerous behavior that doesn’t. Luckyness, which isn’t usually considered to be morally important, is the only thing that makes the difference. But “moral luck,” as philosophers refer to distinctions in culpability that are based on consequences rather than intentions, is, rightly or wrongly, a pervasive characteristic of moral thought in our society, at least the moral thought that informs the criminal law. The speed at which two drivers drive in the same direction under similar road conditions is illegal. One person hits a child, the other hits none. One is guilty of voluntary manslaughter, the other of violating the highway code. Only the result is what makes them different. The difference, though fortuitous, counts for the severity of the punishment deemed appropriate for the defendants’ behavior. Id.

Judge Posner’s analysis applies no less in this case. “Moral luck” casts a long shadow over this case. Had circumstances been just a little different, Mr. Stewart would be alive today, and Mr. Lee would face significantly less criminal liability (a Guideline range of 60 months, approximately 15 years less than the PSR’s calculation)—the cruel caprices of fate.

Below is the entire sentencing memo.

Montez Lee Sentencencing Opinion by Scribd

Senator Tom Cotton became interested in this case, and is currently seeking out answers.

Tom Cotton letter to Merrick Grland about MPLS sentencing via streiff at Scribd

These aren’t just rhetorical questions. Well over a hundred political prisoners are being held by the Biden Justice Department for their role in the January 6 disturbance at the US Capitol, or, to describe it the way the RNC did on Friday, “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” The conditions at the DC jail are squalid and brutal, their ability to consult with attorneys very limited, their accessibility to medical care nearly non-existent. Retirees being kept in prison for “jaywalking tickets” is because they disrespected the liberal-progressive system that exposed its ineligibility. Keep in mind that Jake Angeli, the so-called “MAGA shaman,” will serve about half as much time in prison for sitting in Nancy Pelosi’s chair as Montez Lee will serve for burning a building and killing a father of three.

But the Biden justice department views Montez Lee, his friends as allies. They are fully aligned with their goals. On the contrary, the January 6 are the remnants of traditional order, and they are an affront to the norms Biden/Garland want to enforce upon the rest.

We can’t exist with a legal system the left is trying to inflict upon us, one that was overthrown by the English barons at Runnymede when they forced King John to sign the Magna Carta. It would not be the system in which your political affiliation decides your punishment.