Espionage is espionage, no matter what the level. It is the MOST DESPICABLE crime that there is - betraying your country.
You serve the sentence that you receive - that DOES NOT include perks such as attending your father’s funeral. I am sure that prison officials will arrange an appropriate memorial service, if Pollard so wishes ...
Pollard’s plea discussions with the Government sought both to minimize his chances of receiving a life sentence and to enable Anne Pollard to plead as well, which the Government was otherwise unwilling to let her do. In late May 1986, the Government offered him a plea agreement, which he accepted.
By the terms of that agreement, Pollard was bound to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government,which carried a maximum prison term of life, and to cooperate fully with the Government’s ongoing investigation. In return for Pollard’s plea, the Government promised not to charge him with additional crimes.
On June 4, 1986 Jonathan Pollard pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government. Pollard was sentenced to life in prison on one count of espionage on March 4, 1987. The prosecutor complied with the plea agreement and asked for “only a substantial number of years in prison”; Judge Aubrey Robinson, Jr., not being obligated to follow the recommendation of the prosecutor, and after hearing a “damage-assessment memorandum” from the Secretary of Defense, imposed a life sentence. In 1987, Pollard began his life sentence, which he is still serving.
Pollard’s wife, Anne, was sentenced to five years in prison but was paroled after three and a half years because of health problems. Following the end of Anne’s parole, she emigrated to Israel. Jonathan divorced Anne, citing that he believed he was going to be jailed for the remainder of his life and did not want Anne to be bound to him.
Pollard was eligible to apply for parole after eight years and six months, though he has never done so. At the time of Pollard’s sentencing there was a rule that mandated parole at thirty years for prisoners like him if they had maintained a clean record in prison. His projected release date is November 21, 2015.
Yet we all applaud when Israel’s Mossad took action in Uganda, Chile, Syria, and Iraq. How do you think they pull it off?
It’s like wanting your cake and to eat it too, but then blame someone. I would rather be on the right side of right.
“Espionage is espionage, no matter what the level. It is the MOST DESPICABLE crime that there is - betraying your country.”
You mean, if he were a serial killer or a pedophile, you might think kinder of him? What about a war criminal who faithfully followed orders to commit genocide, rape, ethnic cleansing? At least he was faithful to his country and didn’t spy. Careful with those absolutes.