Article Image

IPFS News Link • Free Speech

Take the Fifth -- And Face Life Imprisonment Without a Trial

• https://www.lewrockwell.com

Philadelphia resident Francis Rawls has been in solitary confinement for seven months, despite the fact that he has not been accused of a crime – let alone convicted of one. He may spend the rest of his life in that condition as punishment for invoking his unconditional right, supposedly protected by the Fifth Amendment, against self-incrimination.

Apart from the seventeen years he spent as an officer with the Philadelphia Police Department, Rawls has never done anything to threaten the public. He has no criminal record. He is suspected of possessing child pornography, which would evince an unspeakably vile appetite and make him a suitable subject of social ostracism. There is no documented reason to suspect him of committing an act of violence or exploitation against a child, which are among the worst imaginable crimes.

When an estranged sister claimed to have seen child pornography on Rawls's cellphone, police demanded that he provide them with access to the device. Rawls cooperated, and no such material was found.

Investigators subsequently seized Rawls's Apple MacPro computer and external hard drives and sued them: The case bears the unlikely title "the United States of America v. Apple MacPro Computer, et al." Investigators demanded that Rawls provide them with his encryption codes. Quite sensibly, Rawls refused. He is a veteran cop and knows – better than the public he supposedly served in that capacity – what happens when a targeted citizen offers the police unrestricted access to his home and personal effects.

If he had acceded to the demand for his encryption codes, Rawls would have done the equivalent of allowing the police to rummage through every room, closet, and drawer in his home, while letting them inspect all of his correspondence, medical records, and personal finances. Diligent and motivated investigators would eventually find something that an ambitious prosecutor could use to manufacture a felony charge.

A Delaware County task force, stymied by Rawls's defiance but determined to pursue the matter, referred the case to a grand jury. Judge Chad F. Kennedy of the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas ruled that Rawls "properly invoked the Fifth Amendment privilege [sic for indefeasible right] against self-incrimination when indicating that he would neither perform the act of decrypting the electronic devices … seized by the Commonwealth, nor provide the passwords to the Grand Jury for the electronic devices."

Rather than accepting this constitutionally unassailable ruling, the task force called in the Feds. An assistant U.S. Attorney filed a motion before US District Judge Thomas J. Rueter – whose background, as we will shortly see, suggests that he was uniquely well-suited to craft an extra-constitutional means to compel Rawls to submit.


thelibertyadvisor.com/declare