Capital rioters tear, regret not spared them from jail – Times of India

WASHINGTON: Florida business owner Robert Palmer rejoiced at the violence at the US Capitol on January 6, before he joined the fray. In an obscene act, he threw a wooden plank and a fire extinguisher at the police officers who were trying to disperse the mob.
Nearly a year later, Palmer shed tears when she faced a federal judge who sentenced her to more than five years in prison. He said he was “horrified, utterly devastated” by what he did.
“I’m just so embarrassed that I was a part of it,” Palmer told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on December 17.
Judges are hearing tearful expressions of remorse – and a slew of excuses – from rioters who paid the price for their involvement in the January 6 uprising, even as the other US seeks to downplay the deadly attack on the seat of democracy. Let’s try.
The Justice Department’s riot investigation has now entered the sentencing phase. So far 71 people have been sentenced for riot-related crimes. These include the CEO of a company, an architect, a retired Air Force colonel, a gym owner, a former Houston police officer and a student at the University of Kentucky. Several rioters have said they lost jobs and friends after a crowd of Donald Trump loyalists obstructed certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
Fifty-six of the 71 pleaded guilty to one wrongful count of holding a parade, demonstration or picketing in the Capitol Building. According to an Associated Press tally of each sentence, most of them were sentenced to home confinement or prison terms measured in weeks or months. But rioters who attacked police officers have been behind bars for years.
After hundreds of people were charged, the Justice Department has drawn heat for not taking strict action on some rioters, and it has failed to charge anyone with treason or treason, despite early signs of an investigation. But lower-level cases are easier to prosecute and are usually settled before more complex cases.
So far, at least 165 people have pleaded guilty, most of them crimes that carry a maximum sentence of six months. There are dozens of cases involving more serious crimes that are still running through the system. According to the Justice Department, more than 220 people have been charged with assaulting or obstructing law enforcement officers at the Capitol. Since November, three of them have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from more than three years to more than five years.
More than 700 people have been charged so far and the FBI is still searching for more. Among the most serious charges are against members of the far-right extremist group, who are accused of plotting an attack to prevent Congress from ratifying the 2020 presidential election. Their cases are yet to be heard.
The protest of rioters in front of judges is often the same: they are caught in an instant or chased by a crowd in the Capitol. They saw no violence or vandalism. They thought the police was allowing them to enter the building. They insist that they went there to protest peacefully.
Their excuses are often bogged down in the face of overwhelming evidence. Thousands of hours of video from surveillance cameras, mobile phones and police body cameras captured them engulfed in devastation. Many people bragged about their crimes on social media in the days following the deadly attack.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that then-President Trump’s incendiary speech on January 6 “stoked the fires of fear and discontent.”
But he told Russell James Peterson, a rioter from Pennsylvania, that he “went there on his feet” and that he should take responsibility for his actions.
“Nobody was swept away in the capital. No one was taken away. The rioters were adults,” Jackson said before sentenced Peterson to 30 days in prison.
Eighteen judges, including four nominated by Trump, sentenced 71 rioters. Thirty-one defendants have been sentenced to imprisonment or prison, with 22 receiving sentences of three months or less, according to the AP tally. An additional 18 defendants have been sentenced to home imprisonment. The remaining 22 have been given probation without detention.
A genuine display of remorse before or during a sentencing hearing can help a rioter escape a prison cell. Judges often cite remorse as a key factor in deciding sentences.
But Chutkan told Palmer that she couldn’t tell whether her regrets were genuine.
The judge said, “I can’t see into your heart or mind.” “The way you conduct your life after this case is going to say a lot about whether you really have regrets.” The Donna Sue Bisse case is one of only six in which prosecutors agreed to recommend probation without house arrest. But instead, Chutkan sentenced him to 14 days in jail. The judge questioned whether Bisse, 53, of Indiana was really remorseful as she bragged about her involvement in the riot.
Chutkan, nominated by President Barack Obama, said “participating, even a small part, must have consequences in a collective effort to prevent the authentication of the presidential election and prevent the transfer of power.”
Four rioters sentenced by Chief Justice Beryl Howell received three months of home detention after prosecutors recommended prison sentences. Howell, who is also Obama’s nominee, questioned the Justice Department’s “messy approach” in solving cases with misdemeanor pleas, despite using “fiery language” to describe the rioters’ actions.
Anthony Mariotto, a Florida man who was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to pay a US$5,000 fine, said he was “caught in the moment” but knows he has entered the Capitol by law. broke.
“I was hoping they would block the election,” Maritto said during his December sentencing. “I wish Joe Biden, President Biden, had won by billions of votes. Nothing like that would have happened.” Judge Reggie Walton answered dryly, “He won by 7 million.”