Crosses fingers and prays he actually does get a do-over that lands Labrie in big boy prison.

“Hilariously, Rancourt, the new lawyer, was actually on his defense team at trial, but “did not take an active role in the trial proceedings,” as Boston.com writes.”

If THIS kid gets a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel when Brendan Dassey hasn’t I will literally punch the next person who tells me the rich aren’t treated better in Court in America.

I don’t see why this is a big deal. Motions for New Trial are filed all the time in these types of cases. Not sure about the rules up there, but down here I think it gets you an extra 60 days to file your notice of appeal, plus if you use the same grounds for your MNT that you will raise on appeal, it bolsters your…

Have fun wasting money on that pointless attempt, douchebag parents.

It’s not just you. There’s a whole cottage industry of seminars teaching the poor and disenfranchised how to become sovereign citizens to make all of their economic woes dissappear. It used to be the domain of older, angry white dudes, but in the last decade it’s made serious inroads within the black community. It’s…

The things I love about it, Renard, are the bastardized legal concepts—like, it’s obvious that someone with an agenda who was completely ignorant read some casebooks and treatises and concocted these insane theories of admiralty law, old treaties, “commercial” roots of law—you know, because of how we rely on the…

Police HATE dealing with sovereign citizens. They’d rather deal with gangs then sovereign citizens.

What's sadder and more frustrating is that they clearly learn this in prison. Like instead of spending time in the law library looking for actual ways to file a habeas petition, their fellow inmates are filling their heads either this.

This police officer is so amazingly patient and professional. Though I believe he’s probably about to roll his eyes out of his head behind those glasses... and now I literally think he’s about to start jumping up and down out of frustration. But still, he’s being so.damn.patient.

We are. Thanks, Tea Party and Libertarians. So glad you’re here.

So what you’re saying is that one sovereign citizen can kidnap other sovereign citizens and force them into Thrunderdome-style cage death-matches, and since the laws don’t apply to any of them there’s nothing the government can do to stop it.

Is there ever a scenario where sovereign citizenship doesn’t serve primarily as a way to avoid the legal ramifications of doing something shitty?

Isn’t the accused in this case black himself? It’s a little hard to tell but I would probably identify him as black if asked. Not that you were suggesting that’s his defense of being a sovereign citizen, but it brings up an interesting point. What if a marginalized POC claimed to be a sovereign citizen because the…

I’m still really impressed by the response I wrote. Good for me.

But if the laws don’t apply to them then is there any punishment for doing something normally illegal against these people? Have they thought this through? Can anyone just come up and steal their things or beat them unconscious if the laws don’t apply to them?

We are probably seeing more of them. The movement received a lot of publicity during the whole Malheur Refuge occupation. I love that these folks drive on roads paved by government entities, benefit from fire and police protection, etc. and etc. but then they are all “I’m a sovereign citizen, your laws don’t work on…

It’s not you. When I worked at my county’s DA office, we had one man who claimed to be a sovereign citizen to get out of a misdemeanor resisting arrest. He bombarded my supervisor with these insane, rambling motions citing treaties from the 1600's and 1700's.

AND