It is among the most shocking, un-American concepts that we have political prisoners in this country.
Now, two people known to many conservatives, who fit the age and health conditions of who should be given home release from prison during the coronavirus pandemic, face death sentences because they are still in, or going into, prison.
Speaking Wednesday on WMAL’s Larry O’Connor Show just days before heading to prison for 40 months, Roger Stone described not only being recently censored by Facebook, but talks about his politicized, unfair trial before Judge Amy Berman Jackson.
Stone told O’Connor that his age, the comorbidity of his asthma, and the non-violent nature of the crime for which he was sentenced make him eligible for home detention. Lawyers Michael Avenatti, former Trump lawyer turned Trump enemy Michael Cohen, and others in Roger’s age or physical circumstances have been released from prison to home confinement.
But American political prisoner Roger Stone is still headed to prison.
Stone told O’Connor about the recent increase in coronavirus cases in the prison where he is headed. Judge Jackson could easily modify her sentence, and save Roger Stone’s life by allowing him to have home confinement. Roger’s case is on appeal, but COVID-19 could take his life before it’s ever heard.
Another political prisoner, our friend and conservative movement firebrand former Congressman Steve Stockman, faces even more dire consequences.
I have previously written about the total legal fraud committed against Steve that led to his imprisonment (The Persecution Of Congressman Steve Stockman), and more recent efforts by leaders of the conservative movement to seek his release to home confinement during the pandemic (Conservative Leaders Urge Humanitarian Release For Former Rep. Steve Stockman). We wrote:
Prisoners with pre-existing bad health conditions are particularly vulnerable to being infected in over-crowded cells, dorms, and feeding facilities. These prisoners were sentenced for crimes, but the present circumstances literally make them at risk for a death sentence, a punishment that does not fit their crimes. ***
A perfect example of a prisoner who fits criteria of who should be removed from prison is former Texas Congressman Steve Stockman, who at age 63, with diabetes and a lung condition, and who was being denied medication in prison even before the coronavirus outbreak, is serving under what many have reason to believe was a political prosecution — after three failed grand juries before a fourth indicted him — for criticizing the Obama administration, the lawlessness at the IRS under Lois Lerner, and corruption in the Ukraine. A successful man of intense Christian faith, Steve poses no danger to society, but remaining in prison may be a death sentence for him.
While Democrat cities are releasing violent rioters and anarchists under the auspices of bail reform, our prison system remains a tin can of death-in-waiting for political prisoners Steve Stockman and Roger Stone.
A study published on July 8 (COVID-19 Cases and Deaths in Federal and State Prisons) notes that the novel COVID-19 “represents a challenge to prisons because of the close confinement, limited access to personal protective equipment, and elevated burden of cardiac and respiratory conditions that exacerbate COVID-19 risk among prisoners.” The report says, “[t]he COVID-19 case rate for prisoners was 5.5 times higher than the US population case rate of 587 per 100,000.”
Steve Stockman’s situation is particularly egregious.
Camp personnel have sometimes let him go with only one dose of insulin per day and, on at least one occasion, no doses. Even when properly administered twice daily, he goes for up to 15 hours without insulin between mid-afternoon and the next morning. Steve takes prescription Zinc due to a condition of malabsorption he suffers resulting from surgery years ago that prevents his proper uptake of vitamins and nutrients. The Bureau of Prisons has refused to fill his prescription for Zinc since February.
In mid-April, his paperwork for home confinement due to COVID-19 was all signed and approved. On April 23 Steve was again reconfirmed for transfer to home confinement, and was asked for his prisoner number to verify his name and status. He was cleared.
However, the next day, while entering the quarantine room, Steve was stopped and told he was taken off the list. Counselor Ms. Battles assured Steve that his name was still on the list, but she did not know why he was told he was taken off.
Subsequently, Steve was told various reasons he was removed, including Camp Administrator Ms. Carbone’s very odd explanation on Sunday, April 26, that he would be safer there at the Correction Complex than at home with his wife. But as of June 23, Beaumont, Texas units where Steve is imprisoned reported 10 staffers with the virus, 5 inmates in the Low unit (which includes the Camp where Steve is located), and one inmate death.
Steve meets all of the conditions for home confinement consistent with a memo released by Bureau of Prisons on Furlough and Home Confinement.
But when Steve later pressed his question further, he was told he isn’t leaving prison, and that the directions came from someone “high up.”
The number of COVID-19 infections at the Beaumont facility has now skyrocketed to 180 cases as of July 9, and like nursing homes in Democrat states, infected prisoners are being knowingly and recklessly transferred in with persons at risk. Through sources, we hear the situation in the prison is “spinning out of control.”
Both Steve Stockman and Roger Stone were convicted on trumped-up charges that would not result in severe criminal sentences for Democrats, establishment Republicans, and certainly not members of the Deep State. Judges denied their constitutional rights at trial by refusing to allow both to fully explain how they were targeted by the Deep State for their outspoken political positions.
Their unfair, biased treatment by the criminal justice system and the prison system is bad enough, but now may result in a death sentence.
But what evil government systems that hold political prisoners wouldn’t prefer them dead anyway?
Take action.
People in corrupt government systems know they can get away with bad things because most Americans who would be offended don’t pay attention.
Those who work in the Deep State fear sunlight on themselves and their abuses. So we need to put sunlight on them.
I urge my readers to not only tweet this article, and use their other social media and blogs to get this story out, but reprint this entire article or portions of it — even in your name. I waive copyrights.
Write letters to newspaper editors, call in to talk shows, and expose, expose, expose what’s going on. Make this go viral.
Because Christ’s teaching made clear our obligation to reach out to those in prison, I expect most people who read this are people of faith who will act on it.
Let President Trump, Vice President Pence, and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows know you want justice for Roger Stone and Steve Stockman.
A fourth person at the same White House contact information to whom I urge you to reach out is Jared Kushner, who was the principal driver of the Second Chance Act and President Trump’s successful prison reform efforts.
Call the White House switch board at 202-456-1414, or write them at:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
(For more from the author of “Death Sentences for Two American Political Prisoners” please click HERE)
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