Tennessee Inmate: How to Solve the Problem with America’s Judicial System

DO CITIZENS KNOW THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS IN COURT?

by Todd J. Sweet, ©2012

(Jun. 12, 2012) —[Editor’s Note:  The following letter has been typed exactly as the author wrote it, as in this particular article, we did not wish to interrupt the flow of his words and ideas with “[sic]” to indicate an error, as is our custom.

Todd J. Sweet is a Tennessee state prisoner and has been corresponding with The Post & Email since last winter. He has been apprehended in the states of Arizona, Michigan and Tennessee and is currently incarcerated in the Turney Center Industrial Complex in Hickman County, TN.  He has written extensively about the court system in Monroe County, TN, on which The Post & Email has reported extensively.

Late last month, Sweet and his cellmate, Mike Jones, were moved on an “emergency” basis following several articles published at The Post & Email in which Sweet stated that he and Jones feared for their lives because of poor security at the facility in Clifton, TN, which was operated by a private firm, CCA.

Sweet’s reference to Judge Amy Reedy dispatching U.S. Marshals to Florida pertains to The Post & Email’s article of May 8, 2012 regarding a former Monroe County, TN man who was never charged with a crime yet was sought out by U.S. Marshals for arrest earlier this year.  The man’s cousin and his mother were questioned on two occasions by U.S. Marshals and reportedly offered money to divulge their relative’s whereabouts.  The Post & Email has sent a FOIA request to the U.S. Marshals’ Service regarding the incidents with the marshals.

The following article on what Sweet perceives to be the flaws in our current judiciary is the first part of a plan he was writing with the purpose of restoring the Judicial Branch to its constitutional limitations and responsibilities.  The second part was written after he learned of the discovery made by Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III regarding laws passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1984 which rendered county criminal courts obsolete and illegal.]

There exists in this country a mass of citizens that try to fight corruption on a daily basis.  Citizens that believe in the Constitution.  The Bill of Rights.

The Ten Commandments.

A majority of those citizens are free.  Some however are incarcerated as I am myself.

Our military is made up of men and women that fight and die for the protection of our rights and the rights of others.

Day after day, year after year we hear the same talk of what is wrong with our judicial system.  How it is our hope to rid the “system” of the corrupt.

Day after day, year after year all we do is get more and more corrupt.  The judicial system gets worse and worse.

Society falls apart, cracking and crumbling further and further as we watch our words of wanted justice evaporate into just that…words.

What real action is being taken against the corruptors of the judicial system?

We write and vent with our mouths and pens and the internet, but essentially our words.  Whether in the air on paper or on a computer screen are all falling on the def ears of the very corruptors we fight.

How can we fight the unjust if the unjust are the same ones hearing our motions?

Our grievances?

Is it possible?  Many of you have been spinning your wheels and wasteing your money to try and try to gain even a small win against a lazy “good ole boy” justice system that only seems to want to change for the worse.

So, if the judicial system doesnt wish to change can we…..

force it to change?

Absolutely.

In this series of articles, starting right here, I will take from my experiences over the years of courtroom battles as a criminal.  I will point out major disasters that occurr every single day in courtrooms across this nation in criminal courts that if changed, will change this entire nations judicial system and the face of the country.  These changes arent just wishful thinking.  These changes arent “hopes.”  These changes are real and most importantly can be forced on the system to change the system.

Some of you may think that criminal courts dont make or break this country.  You are very wrong.  You will see over the course of this series that it is the wrong doings and corruption at the criminal court level that has and is destroying the United States.

Here in this article I will point out some problems I have witnessed in many states and in many courts.  Over the course of this series I will outline a very real very simple solution to the problems.

These solutions I promise are so simple, yet so very powerful that we can change this entire country very quickly, in just a few short years if we stick to it.

This plan of mine is so simple that I myself will begin it and if neccessary I will stick to it alone and I will show this nation that one man working inside the love and will of God can change a country in its entirety.

That I can take control and bring the United States judiciary system back in line to what it was meant to be.

I will start alone and in Monroe County.

I will force the judicial system to change.

I will force the corrupt to flee.

All by Gods word and power.

With God, all things are possible.

Now to some vital problems in the courts.

We can start here with many lawyer jokes, but we will not because though I use to find them comical, I dont any longer.

All lawyers essentially take the same oath and pass the same bar exam.  Though there are undoubtedly better schools and top attorneys, all attorneys are fully equiped to do their job.  Whether court appointed or hired counsel, they all know what is expected of them.  Many simply have gotten lazy and uncareing and have forgotten what it is they are suppose to do.

Do not get me wrong.  What I’m about to say may seem to only benefit the criminal, if you open your mind and pay attention, you will find that not so.

Often things are not as they appear to be.

Plain and simply.  Many, not all, but most attorneys do nothing to represent their clients in criminal proceedings.  They threaten their clients behind closed doors.  They seek a plea bargain.  They dont investigate.  They dont even file for a discovery in the cases.  There is no actual defense prepared.

Deal Deal Deal.

Lawyers tell their clients that the judge will bury them if they go to a trial.

The lawyers lie.

The judges know it goes down and dont care.  Most of them use to do it themselves.

Very few officials or attorneys in courtrooms across the nation have actually been thru major trials.

It is my belief that “deals” or plea bargains should only be considered when certain circumstances have occurred to warrant such bargaining.  The way it was originally meant to be, such as:

1) The victim is underage or frightened and does not want to re-live the experience.

2) The accused is absolutely guilty and has admitted to such and it is a waste of judicial time and money to proceed to trial, so a deal for lessor time is met.

Wrong!

It is my belief that the only reason for a criminal case not to proceed to trial is for the following.

1) The victim is under age or to traumatized to relive the experience.

2) The accused has plead guilty with nothing promised and nothing threatened.

No bargaining what-so-ever.  You as the criminal either admit your guilt fully and take full responsibility for such or…

The lawyers do their job fully and completely to defend the criminal accused of breaking a law.

The courts do their job as unbiased overseers of the facts.  And do it in the time specified by law.

To give you a live example I will bring you to one of my court dates in Monroe County and what I observed.

The date was set for “case management” to track the cases of those present.  To schedule trials if “agreements werent met.”

Me and 20 or more accused stood before Judge Ross.

I fully knew I was taking the charge to a jury trial.

Judge Ross is only one judge with one court room.

So how is it that he scheduled my trial and put off all 20 plus others?

A defendant has the constitutional right to a speedy trial.  It is 180 days.

So constitutionally how can you put off 20+ trials without violating the rights of the accused?

You threaten them and get them to plea.

Problem solved.

This happens hundreds of times per month in Monroe County alone.

Some of these men and women are not guilty.  Some only need counselling.  Some dont belong in prison or jail for they are first time offenders.

Some need more time than “bargained” because they refuse to learn and are a threat to society.

So.  20 plus men and women will not have motions filed.  No defense will be prepared.  No investigation done.  No jury selection.  No trial.

So where is all the money that the county has in its budget to deal with these 20+ individuals?

Where will it go?

And this is only one day in Monroe County.

Twenty plus individuals will plea to felonies and pack the jail and the prisons.  No “rehabilitation” will be given.

Those felonies will make it harder for those twenty to get jobs.  Their children will suffer.  Society as a whole will suffer.

The lawyers will continue to collect fees from tax payers for doing absolutely nothing.

The judges will get paid for doing absolutely nothing.

the District Attorney’s will get paid for doing absolutely nothing.

People “think” that the plea bargain was made to aid the criminal.  Not so.  it was made to help the courts, to shuffle the accused through the system as fast as possible with no real care as to who is guilty or who’s not.  who or who’s not rehabilitated.

So that the officials can suck up the intended trial cash flow for their own gains.

The Constitutional Right to a fair and speedy trial is not an issue so it grows weakened by the plea.

Now let me ask you this….

What would happen if lets say 15 out of that 20 demanded a speedy trial?  Demanded that their court appointed attorney filed the proper pretrial motions?  Demanded that the time limits for preliminary hearing and trila were met?  Demanded that it was a jury trial?  Demanded that a real defense be prepared?

What would happen in Monroe County if just that 15 individuals refused to take a “deal” and demanded that their Constitutional Rights be met.

In case S08-400 in Monroe County Court, I demanded a preliminary hearing.  I did this past the 10 days that is the allowable limit by law.

The court dismissed the case.

I demanded that the Constitutional Right to speedy trial be met in Monroe County case 08-456.

They (the court) was hundreds of days past the limit, yet asked me to “plea.”  I refused.

The charge was dismissed.

The escape charge in Michigan was 3 years over the Constitutional Right to speedy trial.

The Chippewa Court appointed attorney threatened me and told me the 180 day speedy trial right did not matter.  The constitution did not matter.  he told me I had better take the “deal” of 10 to 25 years in prison.

I stood on my Constitution and the judge did her job and ruled on my self prepared motion.

The charge was dismissed.

My point?

We can make the corrupt and the judicial system change.  Force them to do their jobs.  To follow the Constitution.

If 20 or 50 or 100 men and women in Monroe County had incentive to trust the Constitution and stand on it and force the lawyers and the courts to do what they were swore to do I can promise you that the judiciary in Monroe would crumble.  The police wouldnt have time to do the injustices like they did to Walter Fitzpatrick.  To Mr Huff, to man more.

They certainly would not have the money to deploy a massive SWAT operation for the fun of it.

Amy Reedy would be to busy to use her miraculous super woman powers to deploy a U.S. Marshal team all the way in Florida.  for no reason.

Michael Morgan and Pat Henry wouldnt have time to steal legal mail to government agencies.

So, am I just ranting?

No.

I am giving you a vision.  Can you imagine the dramatic change in Monroe County if they had to all do their jobs?

20 to 50 trials per month.

Can you imagine if that caught on in Athens?  Knoxville?  Nashville?

The entire state of Tennessee?

The United States of America?

Can we force this to happen?

is Todd Joseph Sweet just running off @ the mouth?

Nope.

It will happen.  It will begin in Monroe County.

Being how the corrupt dont want to change…

I will force them to change.

Judges.  Prosecutors.  Lawyers.  Cops.

You will all be very busy.  You will do your jobs to their fullest.

You will be forced to revert back to the Constitution the way our founders wanted you to.

This country is about to begin its judicial make over.

Over the next many articles I will lay out my plan to make all of this possible.

It will happen.

All things are possible with God.

There will be no more plea’s and bargains to such a magnetude as there is now.

Overseers will assure that lawyers do their jobs fully.

That judges follow laws and rules.

I will force the corrupt out by Gods power.

Remember…He is the one who put this on my heart and gave me the knowledge and wisdom to make it all possible.

I hope you all are prepared, your going to need your rest, your energy, and your heads in what you, the corrupt have made a “game.”

It is no game to me.

If one must follow the laws – all must follow the laws or equally pay the consequences.

God Bless You –

In His Love & Service –

Sweet

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Editor’s Note:  The updated address for Todd Sweet is:

Todd J. Sweet 453762 – 1A-118
1499 R.W. Moore Memorial Hwy.
Only, TN  37140

Please include a return address to ensure delivery of your letters.  Sweet has told The Post & Email that he can always use postage stamps.