Posted on 05/09/2013 3:20:34 PM PDT by Libloather
Several of former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s (D-Ill.) constituents are asking a federal judge to show him no mercy when he hands down his sentence.
The charges of using campaign funds for personal use, which Jackson has pleaded guilty to, are worse than murder, Chicago resident Gregory Ritter said in a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Wilkins.
“[M]urder would be a lighter crime, as these defendants have used the political hopes and dreams of the constituents as a blank check for deceit,” Ritter wrote. “The crimes of this magnitude are not like a traffic ticket.
“While the act of being a hypocrite is not punishable. The violation of this magnitude has made our democracy shiver.”
Jackson admitted to spending $750,000 worth of campaign funds on televisions, appliances, movie tickets and jewelry. His sentence is expected to be handed down July 1.
The former congressman faces up to four years in prison, but his lawyers have pleaded with Wilkins to show leniency. They note Jackson’s doctor has described him as being mentally unstable.
Some of Jackson’s onetime constituents say Wilkins should throw the book at him.
“The congressman comes from a prominent family and has been afforded the best education that a lot in our society has not,” wrote Tiny Hawkins, of Markham, Ill. “I am asking that you do the right by his constituents and treat him as you would any other person.”
She said Jackson “did absolutely nothing for our district for the time he served.”
Hawkins said that her mother had asked Jackson to talk with Markham Mayor David Webb about a drug problem in their neighborhood, but “he refused to do so.”
Martin Dettmer, a dentist in Wheaton, Ill., asked the judge to “apply the full force and limits of law allowed in sentencing.”
Dettmer compared Jackson’s attempt to leverage his mental illness for leniency to a drunk driver attempting to use the disease of alcoholism to get a lighter sentence for vehicular manslaughter.
“A strong message needs to be sent and an example needs to be made!” Dettmer wrote. “Please do everything in your power to see that Representative Jackson pays, and pays dearly, for his egregious and repulsive behavior.”
Jackson's crime even inspired Frank Bailey, from Oak Bluffs, Mass., to ask the judge to give the former lawmaker “the maximum jail time in a regular prison and not in some country club setting.”
“The whole country will be looking at your decision, and Jesse Jackson should not be given a mere slap on the wrist,” he wrote.
Ritter also asked for Jackson’s father, the famed civil rights leader and former presidential candidate the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., to be investigated to see if he was complicit in attempts to cover up his sons crimes.
Not all the letters received by the judge damned Jackson for his behavior.
Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) — the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus — asked for leniency, as did an Illinois teamster representative who called on Wilkins to “be merciful."
And at least three other private citizens wrote to ask for some variation of mercy, saying that he had “integrity,” did “wonderful things for his district” and that his “misdeeds certainly do not outweigh his good deeds.”
Wow, what a distorted sense of morality. Donation fraud worse than murder????
Jesse Jr. was the one they were hoping would one day be in Obama’s shoes.
Of course he is, he's a leftist liberal that feels it's owed to him.
Throw the book at him.
.....ASK THE SAME GUY WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT ODUNGO. His rant could be directed at Odungo and no one would notice
Racists.
I hope the judge rubs it in their faces. And lets him off. Make his constituents feel the pain of what they voted for. They want the book thrown? Give them the opposite. Maybe they will think twice about electing another like him.
That's it...!!!3/4 of a million...!!!
Obama and the Clintons must consider him a rank poseur...
Seriously, he must be a complete dumbass not to figure out how to scam like the rest of the corrupt dems...
Is it a crime to be a race hustler?
Yeah, right. And they’ll vote for him again as soon as he gets out.
Whaddya mean he did nothing for his constituents? He taught his constituents a very valuable lesson. Never trust a politician who promises to make your life better. Only you can make your life better. Pols have to get out of the way. At least I hope they learned a valuable lesson. But probably not.
Wheaton, IL is a far cry from Markham, IL. It's also not in Jackson Jr.'s district. Wonder what this guy was doing at the sentencing hearing? Markham, IL is about 10-15 miles straight EAST of where I live. It's a complete craphole of a town. Overwhelmingly majority Black. Burned out homes, druggie homes, no sustainable businesses exist there beyond gas stations, independently run no-name convenience stores and a few fast food places (McDonalds, fried chicken, bbq rib joints and some flop house motel's that you wouldn't want to be caught dead in.)
To say that Jackson's done nothing for his district is an understatement. He's milked it dry, just like his predecessor the convicted felon child-sexual predator Mel Reynolds before him, and the corrupt Gus Savage before him. For over 40 years the 2nd Congressional District has been a crap-hole for corrupt politicians to skim, milk and extort money from. And the dummies that live there keep re-electing the same corrupt politicians. They even re-elected Jackson KNOWING he was being indicted and would be convicted.
If you keep voting for corruption, don't complain when you live in a craphole with nothing to show for it. You (the voters in the 2nd Congressional District) got what you voted for.
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