Title: U.S. Preparing to Release Convicted Israeli Spy Jonathan Pollard, Officials Say Source:
WSJ URL Source:[None] Published:Jul 24, 2015 Author:DEVLIN BARRETT Post Date:2015-07-24 22:11:06 by whyofcourse Keywords:None Views:892 Comments:1
"The Department of Justice has always and continues to maintain that Jonathan Pollard should serve his full sentence for the serious crimes he committed, which in this case is a 30-year sentence as mandated by statute," the DOJ said in a statement.
The full sentence is life imprisonment, not 30 years.
WASHINGTON - US officials on Friday denied a Wall Street Journal report that the Obama administration was considering early release for Jonathan Pollard, a former US Navy intelligence officer convicted of spying for Israel.
The Justice Department said Pollard must serve his full 30-year sentence. It stressed that he has long been eligible for consideration for parole in November but insisted that the administration has no say in how that process unfolds.
The full sentence is life imprisonment, not 30 years.
Whoever takes it upon himself to release this scumbag will earn the wrath of the intelligence community. That can be very painful.
If Pollard is to be released, it would more likely be by a presidential pardon while walking out the door, like Marc Rich.
But Pollard apparently has friends in the BOP. They already show him with a release date of November 21, 2015.
Most inmate searches will result in a date being posted in the "Release Date" field. If the listed date is in the future, it reflects the inmate's projected release date based on BOP calculations. If the listed date has passed, the release occurred on the date listed and the inmate is no longer in BOP custody. Note however that the inmate may still be on parole or supervised release or in the custody of some other correctional/criminal justice system. If the Release Date field indicates "UNKNOWN", the inmate's confinement term is not determined (e.g. he or she may be in pretrial status, has not yet been sentenced, etc.).
Scumbag was not sentenced to 30 years. He was sentenced to life imprisonment pursuant to his plea of guilty. His appeals were heard and rejected. His sentence remains, life imprisonment.
At 30 years, he gets a mandatory parole hearing, not mandatory parole.
United States of America v. Jonathan Jay Pollard, Appellant, 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit - 959 F.2d 1011 (D.C. Cir. 1992)
Argued Sept. 10, 1991. Decided March 20, 1992. Order Amending Opinion May 28, 1992
[295 U.S.App.D.C. 11] Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (86cr00207-01).
Theodore B. Olson, with whom John H. Sturc, Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., and Hamilton P. Fox, III, Washington, D.C., were on the brief, for appellant.
John R. Fisher, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Jay B. Stephens, U.S. Atty., and Elizabeth H. Danello, Asst. U.S. Atty., Washington, D.C., were on the brief, for appellee.
Kenneth Lasson, Baltimore, Md., was on the brief for amici curiae, Law Professors, et al., urging reversal.
Before: RUTH BADER GINSBURG, SILBERMAN and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge SILBERMAN.
Dissenting opinion filed by Circuit Judge WILLIAMS.
SILBERMAN, Circuit Judge:
Pursuant to an agreement with the government, Jonathan Pollard pleaded guilty on June 4, 1986 to one count of conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government. See 18 U.S.C. § 794(c). Chief Judge Aubrey E. Robinson, Jr. of the district court sentenced him to life imprisonment. Pollard did not appeal his conviction. Pollard later made an unsuccessful motion under Fed. R. Crim. P. 35 to have his sentence reduced and, again, did not appeal.
Three years after sentencing, having served the intervening time in prison, Pollard sought to attack his sentence collaterally by filing a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 22551 seeking the district court's approval to withdraw his guilty plea. Pollard claimed that the government obtained his guilty plea improperly--even unconstitutionally--by linking or "wiring" his wife's plea to his own. Anne Henderson Pollard had also been arrested in connection with Pollard's espionage, but the government refused to enter into a plea agreement with her unless he pleaded guilty as well. Pollard also asserted that the government breached the plea agreement by the nature of its arguments (allocution) to the district court at sentencing and, furthermore, that Chief Judge Robinson based Pollard's sentence on ex parte communications from the government. Appellant sought a hearing on this rather dramatic charge and asked Chief Judge Robinson to recuse himself. Pollard's new attorneys in the § 2255 proceeding also sought access to certain highly classified materials the government had submitted at sentencing.
The district judge declined to recuse, denied access to the classified sentencing materials, and, without holding a hearing, refused to permit Pollard to withdraw his guilty plea. See United States v. Pollard, 747 F. Supp. 797 (D.D.C. 1990). This appeal followed, and we now affirm.
[...]
The issue before us as appellate judges is not whether a life sentence was appropriate punishment for Pollard's crime, still less whether we ourselves would have imposed such a sentence. It is rather whether [295 U.S.App.D.C. 28] the appellant has mounted a sufficient challenge to the actions of the government and the district judge to clear the formidable barriers to relief in a collateral attack on his sentence under § 2255. We think not. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
