Liberty and Prosperity members Seth Grossman and Mark Hutchinson joined Atlantic County Sheriff Frank Balles, NJ 2d Amendment Society leader Frank Fiamingo, rally organizers Andrew Tanzczyk, Richard Gibbons, and James ?Paul today on the steps of the Atlantic County Criminal Courthouse in Mays Landing. ? About a dozen others also attended. Organizers Tanzczyk, Gibbons, and Paul are members of the the Tea Party of Middlesex County found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/MidCoTeaParty/
Shaneen is a 27 year old African-American ?mother of two who resides in Philadelphia.? She is employed as a medical technician.?? She has no criminal record and is licensed to carry a handgun in? Pennsylvania.?? Last year, during a routine traffic stop in Atlantic County, Shaneen volunteered to the officer that she had the weapon and showed her permit as required by Pennsylvania law.?? Because New Jersey does not recognize out-of-state permits, Shaneen? is now under criminal ?indictment for a felony that carries a minimum mandatory 3.5 years in State prison.??? See http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Philly_mom_faces_jail_due_to_New_Jerseys_strict_gun_laws.html?c=r
New Jersey has a ?Pretrial Intervention? (PTI) program that allows persons with no prior offenses to avoid prosecution by agreeing to an extensive background check, voluntary probation, supervision, and drug-testing, and community service.
Although the Pretrial Intervention administrator approved Shaneen for entry into Atlantic County?s PTI program, Superior Court Judge Michael Donio denied her application.
Last May, Judge Donio approved Baltimore Raven running back Ray Rice for that same PTI program.? This allowed Rice to avoid prosecution for beating his then-fianc?e unconscious during an argument and confrontation.?? ?Rice was caught on videotape dragging her out of an elevator in the Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City.? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2563240/Shocking-video-footage-shows-Baltimore-Ravens-running-Ray-Rice-drag-girlfriend-Atlantic-City-casino-elevator-legs.html,
The problem of good law abiding citizens facing serious felony charges and today’s rally were reported by the Press of Atlantic City today at:? http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/crime/state-gun-laws-come-under-scrutiny-in-atlantic-county-court/article_4178489c-288f-11e4-9bf5-001a4bcf887a.html
Judge Michael Donio of Hammonton was appointed??by Republican Governor Christie Todd Whitman ?in 1995 with the approval of Republican State Senator William Gormley of Atlantic County.??Donio?received tenure seven years later in 2002, and is eligible to remain on the court until 2023 when he reaches mandatory retirement age of 70.
What can we do?
Republican Governor Chris Christie can pardon Shaneen and dismiss the charges any time.
The Legislature with the support of Governor Christie can change the law giving Judge Donio to avoid the mandatory jail sentence.? (This would probably not help, since Judge Donio already has the power to achieve the same result by approving Shaneen for the Pretrial Intervention Program).
The Legislature with the support of Governor Christie can change our gun laws retroactively to recogtnize and respect out of state? gun permits.
Read about the Trial of William Penn and act accordingly if called to jury duty for Shaneen?s trial.?? At one time, every 8th Grade student in America knew and understood the Trial of William Penn and Bushels Case. ? Tell every adult in Atlantic County to read ?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushel’s Case?and talk about it. ? Then read about the trial of John Peter Zenger which was also once known by every American schoolchild.
For more information, go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shaneen-Allen-Legal-Defense-Fund/594457397336649
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Peter_Zenger
Zenger case in history[edit]
In 1733, John Peter Zenger published a newspaper in New York to voice his disagreement with the trivial policies of newly appointed colonial governor William Cosby. On his arrival in New York, Cosby plunged into a rancorous quarrel with the Council of the colony over his salary. Unable to control the colony’s supreme court he removed Chief Justice Lewis Morris, replacing him with James DeLancey of the royal party. Supported by members of the popular party, Zenger’s New York Weekly Journal continued to publish articles critical of the royal governor. Finally, Cosby issued a proclamation condemning the newspaper’s “divers scandalous, virulent, false and seditious reflections.”
Zenger charged with seditious libel. James Alexander was Zenger’s first counsel, but the court found him in contempt and removed him from the case. After more than eight months in prison, Zenger went to trial, defended by the Philadelphia lawyer Andrew Hamilton and the New York lawyer William Smith, Sr. The case was now a cause c?l?bre, with public interest at fever-pitch. Rebuffed repeatedly by Chief DeLancey during the trial, Hamilton decided to plead his client’s case directly to the jury. After the lawyers for both sides finished arguments, the jury retired?only to return in ten minutes with a verdict of not guilty.
To better understand the significance of this historic case, it is important to examine an actual issue of the New York Weekly Journal prior to Zenger’s arrest. Here we see a typical attack against the government in Zenger’s original newspaper as it originally appeared more than 260 years ago. Page one of this issue dated February 25, 1733,[5] carries an article under the pseudonym “Cato.” This article gave its readers a preview of the same argument Attorney Hamilton and William Smith presented 18 months later in the government’s libel case against Zenger?that truth is an absolute defense against libel.
In defending Zenger in this landmark case, Hamilton and Smith attempted to establish the precedent that a statement, even if defamatory, is not libelous if it can be proved, thus affirming freedom of the press in America.[6] However, if they succeeded in convincing the jury, they failed in establishing the legal precedent. As late as 1804, the journalist Harry Croswell was prosecuted in a series of trials that led to the famous People v. Croswell. The courts repeatedly rejected the argument that truth was a defense against libel. It was only the next year that the assembly, reacting to this verdict, passed a law that allowed truth as a defense against a charge of libel.
“Cato writes:
“But this doctrine (‘a lible (sic) is not less a libel for being true’) only holds true as to private and personal failings;
The exposing therefore of public wickedness, as it is a duty which every man owes to the truth and his country, can never be a libel in the nature of things?
It has been hitherto generally understood, that there was no other Libels but those against Magistrates and those against private men. Now to me there seems to be a third set of libels, full as destructive as any of the former can probably be, I mean libels against the people.
Almost all over the earth, the people for one injury they do their governor, receive ten thousand from them. Nay, in some countries it is made death and damnation, not to bear all the oppression and cruelties, which men made wanton by power inflict upon those that gave it them.”