Hawaiian Judge (In New Mexico): I've Got a Great Idea. Let's Release the Jihadis Running the Terrorism Summer Camp from Jail and Accept Their Promises They'll Show Up for Trial.

Catch and release is now extended to other minor crimes, like child abuse and terror planning.

A New Mexico state judge ruled Monday that five alleged Muslim extremists accused of training children to conduct school shootings do not have to remain in jail while they await trial for child abuse.

Judge Sarah Backus released the five defendants, Siraj Wahhaj, Hujrah Wahhaj, Subhannah Wahhaj, Jany Leveille, and Lucas Morten, on a $20,000 "signature bond," according to the Albuquerque Journal. That means that the defendants will not have to pay money unless they violate the conditions of their release.

You do realize that if they abscond, they will not in fact have to pay that money, just as they will not in fact have to actually face trial?

Backus said that New Mexico state prosecutors were unable to show that the five defendants should have their bail denied because they posed a threat to the community. Backus said that the defendants will be required to wear GPS tracking devices through the duration of their court case.

"The state alleges there was a big plan afoot but the state has not shown to my satisfaction by clear and convincing evidence what in fact that plan was," Backus said at Monday's hearing, according to CNN.

....

All five have been charged with 11 counts of child abuse after 11 malnourished children were found at the group's compound during an Aug. 3 raid.

...

Wahhaj's father is a Brooklyn-based imam of the same name. The elder Wahhaj was an un-indicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing case.

The four-year-old son of the younger Siraj Wahhaj was found buried near the compound. Prosecutors say that the boy, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, died during an exorcism ritual conducted by his father.

...

Investigators also found a cache of weapons at the compound. Prosecutors say that Siraj Wahhaj took weapons classes before traveling from Georgia to New Mexico and that he had trained some of the children at the compound how to load and fire semi-automatic rifles.

I wonder if that cache of weapons, and the training of kids to fire them, would have constituted a "choate plan" of attack in this judge's mind if the defendants were Christians rather than Muslims.

I think we'd see a lot more panic from this judge, and a lot less skepticism about the prosecutor's allegations.

posted by Ace of Spades at 02:38 PM

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