panamalaw.org
is our skype name
Yahoo Messenger
with Zfone
panamalaworg
is our yahoo name, click here for instructions
or use our
encrypted email system
Executive Summary – Congress is looking at reducing the number of criminal alws. It has reached an insane level. There are 4,450 federal crimes on the books that carry criminal pemnalties. There are over 300,000 federal regulations that can result in a criminal sentence for violation. I would say not a single, person, jusge or lawyer can possibly know or understand all of these. From 2000 to 2007 congress created 452 new crimes which is more than one crime per week.
Examples - Race car driver Bobby Unser who after getting lost in a blizzard was prosecuted for entering a national wilderness area on a snowmobile. The charge carried a six-month prison term and a $5,000 fine and because it was considered "strict liability," the government did not have to prove Unser intended to break the law, or that he even knew he broke the law.
Texas Republican Rep. Ted Poe told the committee about a slaughterhouse operator who was investigated for immigration violations, but eventually imprisoned for late payment of checks to his cattle suppliers.
Abner Schoenwetter, a Miami seafood importer, spent six years in prison, paid tens of thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees and is at risk of losing his home. His crime? Agreeing to purchase lobster tails that federal prosecutors said violated harvest regulations in Honduras. Federal officials said the catch violated Honduran fishing regulations and therefore, the federal Lacey Act, which makes it a crime to import fish that violates foreign laws. The alleged violations: that the lobsters were in plastic bags, rather than the required cardboard boxes; that some of the lobsters were smaller than 5 ½ inches in length; and that the harvesting of egg-bearing lobsters was prohibited.
Schoenwetter's lawyers, however, turned up evidence from Honduran officials that showed the egg-bearing provision pertained to turtles, not lobsters. The Attorney General of Honduras even sided with Schoenwetter by filing a friend of the court brief, noting that the regulations had been declared void. Schoenwetter, who had no previous criminal history, lost in court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review his case. But it came to the attention of the Washington Legal Foundation and the Heritage Foundation, which showcased it as an example of overreaching criminal law. "Even if the government of Honduras had said the regulations were in effect, is that worth eight years in prison for a guy?" Schoenwetter said after the hearing. "I met all kinds of people in prison, in for drugs and this and that, and I think I had more time than most of them."
Summary – The USA is very messed up and confused. It likes running as a police state and has 2.3 million incarcerated persons which is extremely high. Will they change? Who know.
![]() |
||||||
|
*Offshore Legal Associates Law Firm.We have no legal ties or associations with any other law firm or corporation with similar or like sounding names anywhere and should not be so confused with any other entity having a similar or like sounding name.