14286-19 Beach Blvd., #120
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https://WeCanBeHeroesFoundation.org
July 25, 2023
The Honorable Representative Jim Jordan, Chairman, House Judiciary Committee, and Chairman, Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of Federal Government
2138 Rayburn House Building, Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Representative Mike Johnson, Chairman, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government
The Honorable Representative Darrell Issa, Chairman, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet
The Honorable Representative Andy Biggs, Chairman, Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance,
The Honorable Ben Cline, Chairman, Subcommittee on Responsiveness and Accountability to Oversight
The Honorable Thomas Massie, Chairman, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust and
Distribution List of Honorable Representatives Committee and Subcommittee Members
Dear Congressional Committee Chairs and Members:
Thank you for your service to support and defend the Constitution.
We Can Be Heroes Foundation honors heroes and provides educational forums on America’s founding values and the Constitution. Extensive research by various U. S experts on the Sixth Amendment abuses led many volunteers to request you and each Committee Member place an Emergency Legislative Pause on government unconstitutional prosecutorial overreach. The Legislative Pause should allow you time to enact fair and reasonable Sixth Amendment Constitution-compliant measures through your bureaucracy without causing future harm to the Americans you serve.
Background. America has more U.S. Codes than can be read in a lifetime, yet we are responsible to obey each one. Various sources report the average American commits three felonies each day without even knowing it. When we had the rights guaranteed by Sixth Amendment, Americans did not worry about being imprisoned unjustly. We were pleased to have the options of jury trials or plea-bargaining with prosecutor oversight and transparency. A fair plea-bargaining process gave Americans the option to settle charges speedily and get on with their law-abiding lives. However, this changed when the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued unfair and non-compliant procedures and Congressional funding of unconstitutional government work. Details of the problem, cause, and solution are shown in the Executive Summary referenced below.
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The Chair and Committee Members are requested by the undersigned to: Please take emergency action to protect the Constitution Sixth Amendment rights of my family and community to defend ourselves against prosecutorial overreach without oversight and transparency.This is a respectful demand for the protection of my family as well as yours that you place an Emergency Legislative Pause on 1) prosecutor unfairly engaging in plea-bargaining without oversight, transparency, and right to appeal; and 2) the power to sentence to transfer from judges to prosecutors. This abusive government overreach created the over-criminalization of Americans as shown in the below-referenced reports and is widely known as “The Trial Penalty”.
The power to sentence must be restored to judges. The unilateral DOJ Sentencing Commission Mandatory Minimum Sentence Guidelines should not dictate mandatory sentences. An unbiased judge should be permitted to consider a person’s history, culpability, and responsibilities to sentence as justice dictates. It appears DOJ Sentencing Commission Mandatory Sentencing Guidelines are designed to imprison our population with ever-increasing mandatory imprisonment time. These “Guidelines” with prosecutor sentencing authority have not reduced crime in my community.
Please review the online reports referenced below for your necessary due diligence to restore our Sixth Amendment rights to defend ourselves. This request is simple. My family, as well as others, are simply requesting you and each Committee member place an emergency pause on the above two horrific government overreach powers affecting the freedom of all Americans and violating the letter and the spirit of our Constitution.
All plea-bargaining lacking proof and admissible or legally obtained evidence in grand jury and other criminal cases must be stopped and de-funded immediately. This abusive government prosecutorial misconduct makes a mockery of our liberty and the Constitutional intent of grand juries. Please note the Executive Summary referenced below suggests you re-think and redefine the necessity, use, and validity of abusive grand jury indictments lacking prosecutors’ oversight, admissible evidence, and withheld evidence.
To be clear, we fully support prosecutorial plea-bargaining power when transparency and oversight outside the prosecutor’s agency chain of command exists and when an unbiased judge has the authority to waive the DOJ Sentencing Commission Mandatory Minimums. Plea-bargaining compliant with the spirit of the Sixth Amendment serves our community in the speedy resolution of cases.
We are sharing this urgent request to sound the alarm for the Chair and Committee Members, your constituency, and Americans across the country. Please reply with your plan of action. We trust you will stop funding unconstitutional work of prosecutors and the DOJ. May God grant you the speed and courage to act responsibly with haste.
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References:
The We Can Be Heroes Foundation Constitution Reports:
https://wecanbeheroesfoundation.org/executive-summary-your-probable-imprisonment-reaches-alarming-rate;
https://wecanbeheroesfoundation.org/your-probable-imprisonment-reaches-alarming-rate/ and
The prestigious National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers complete report for download at https://www.nacdl.org/Document/TrialPenaltySixthAmendmentRighttoTrialNearExtinct
Very respectfully,
Beth Heath
and the parties named below choosing to consolidate their request to you with this one mailing to alleviate the burden on your office to handle each request individually: (The list is on file.)
cc: Honorable Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, 2468 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515
Enclosure: Executive Summary, The Problem
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Executive Summary – The Problem:
https://wecanbeheroesfoundation.org/executive-summary-
your-probable-imprisonment-reaches-alarming-rate
- You have a 1 in 3 probability of getting a criminal record.
- An average person commits up to 3 felonies a day without knowing it.
- America has more U.S. Codes, statues, and laws than can be read in a lifetime.
- You are required to follow U.S. Codes even though you were never notified of the law.
- America has the largest prison and jail population in the world.
- America, “the former land of free,” significantly leads all Communists, Islamic, Dictatorships, and other countries in incarcerating its people.
- The United States incarcerates its people five times that of NATO countries:
- Holding hands, Americans with arrest records could circle the earth three times.
- More Americans have a criminal record than a college degree.
- Prosecutors are the most powerful officials in the American criminal justice system.
- 6 out of 10 Americans in State Prisons are brown or black.
- 6 out of 10 Americans in Federal Prisons are white.
- FBI reported arrests for 2020 are 32% aged 26 to 35, 73% male, 27% female, 68% white, 27% black, 5% other or unknown races.
- Numerous scholars have examined plea-bargaining and estimate up to 27% of Americans who plead guilty may factually be innocent.
- African Americans convicted of murder are 50% more likely to be innocent than other convicted murderers.
- Over 5 million Americans were forbidden from voting in 2020 due to felony convictions.
- Most crimes reported to the police go unsolved.
Enclosure
Distribution List, Page 1:
Honorable Representative Colin Allred, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative Kelly Armstrong, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative Cliff Bentz, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet and Subcommittee on Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Dan Bishop, House Judiciary Committee, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, and Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government
Honorable Representative Ken Buck, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Cori Bush, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, and Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
Honorable Representative Kat Cammack, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative David Cicilline, House Judiciary Committee, and Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
Honorable Representative Ben Cline, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet
Honorable Representative Steve Cohen, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Gerry Connolly, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative J. Luis Correa, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Madeleine Dean, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and Internet, Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
Honorable Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government
Distribution List, Page 2
Honorable Representative Jefferson Van Drew, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, Subcommittee on Responsiveness and Accountability to Oversight
Honorable Representative Veronica Escobar, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government
Honorable Representative Scott Fitzgerald, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Russell Fry, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, and Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
Honorable Representative Matt Gaetz, House Judiciary Committee, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
Honorable Representative John Garamendi, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative Sylvia Garcia, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative Dan Goldman, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative Lance Gooden, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Harriet Hageman, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Wesley Hunt, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government
Honorable Representative Darrell Issa, House Judiciary Committee, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Glenn Ivey, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, Subcommittee on Responsiveness and Accountability to Oversight, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Pramila Jayapal, House Judiciary Committee
Distribution List, Page 3
Honorable Representative Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, , House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, and Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government
Honorable Representative Mike Johnson, House Judiciary Committee, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Kevin Kiley, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
Honorable Representative Laurel Lee, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, Subcommittee on Responsiveness and Accountability to Oversight
Honorable Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government
Honorable Representative Ted Lieu, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Zoe Lofgren, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Stephen Lynch, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative Thomas Massie, House Judiciary Committee, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet,
Honorable Representative Lucy McBath, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Tom McClintock, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government
Honorable Representative Barry Moore, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
Honorable Representative Nathaniel Moran, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Responsiveness and Accountability to Oversight, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet
Honorable Representative Jerrold Nadler, House Judiciary Committee
Distribution List Page 4
Honorable Representative Joe Neguse, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet
Honorable Representative Troy Nehls, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
Honorable Representative Stacey Plaskett, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative Deborah K. Ross, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet
Honorable Representative Chip Roy, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government
Honorable Representative Linda Sanchez, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Adam Schiff, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet
Honorable Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative Victoria Spartz, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Elise Stefanik, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative W. Gerogory Steube, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative Chris Stewart, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Honorable Representative Eric Swalwell, House Judiciary Committee, The Subcommittee on Responsiveness and Accountability to Oversight, Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust
Honorable Representative Thomas P. Tiffany, House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
# End