Washing Our Hands
Pontius Pilate and Kilmar Abrego Garcia
I spent my entire professional life devoted to the principle that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”
Due process means that we do not send people to prison, here or in any other place, before the government presents evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that that person is guilty of this specific, defined crime. This has been the foundation of all jurisprudence in the English speaking world since the Magna Carta was signed in the Anno Domini 1215, so no one can claim they haven’t heard of the idea.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia could be a saint or the reanimated corpse of Charles Manson infected by the ghost of Al Capone. It does not matter. He has been accused by the state of Maryland of some kind of gang membership and was accused by his wife of domestic violence, but neither of those charges ever went to trial. Further, those are state charges, not federal. This is a problem for the state of Maryland, not the Trump Administration.
Instead of following 800+ years of Anglo-American legal practice, the Trump Administration sent Garcia to a crime-against-humanity prison in El Salvador, and honestly, it wouldn’t matter if they‘d sent him to a Scandinavian luxury dormitory that barely has fences. HE HAS NEVER BEEN CONVICTED OF A CRIME.
We do not imprison people who have not been found guilty. This IS a hill I will die on and demand that my government die on as well. Every one of you who mourns with the rest of Christendom about the execution of an innocent man today should think about how we remember the High Priest and Pontius Pilate and whether you want to be in their company on Judgement Day.
Spot ON with your apt connection to the Christian metaphor. (And sad that “christianity” has been usurped by people who forget that empathy, compassion, and “love thy neighbor” are its main tenets.