Source: ajustfuture.org 9/20/22
Justices declare effort targeting leading advocate illegal, ending 5-year court battle
On Thursday, the highest court in Virginia ended the Commonwealth’s 13-year campaign to indefinitely detain a prominent advocate on criminal justice matters, Galen Baughman. In a victory for justice the Supreme Court ruled that the petition filed against Baughman in 2017 was illegal.
A Short History of Baughman’s Fight
Baughman has been targeted by the Virginia attorney general’s office under the state’s civil confinement scheme since 2009 when prosecutors filed a petition to send him to Virginia’s shadow prison in Burkeville shortly before his release from a seven-year prison sentence for consensual adolescent sexual conduct. That initial petition went to trial in 2012 and a jury voted unanimously in his favor. Baughman describes that trial in a 2015 TED Talk. In 2017, less than 24 hours before his release from a 20-month sentence for an alleged first-time technical violation, the attorney general’s office petitioned a second time to have Baughman indefinitely detained past his release date. The Supreme Court’s ruling last week dismissed that 2017 petition because it was based on the testimony of an expert who was prohibited from testifying under “the plain language of the statute.”
Courts are starting to get it! This is just incarceration disguised as treatment. Soon they may start to understand that this is really just part of a whole corrupt system.
Every victory in every challenge in every court helps to end this whole nightmare system everywhere.
I couldn’t of said it better. Maybe I should go down and give the detective a bit more talking to. Even the DA said she didn’t want to talk to me until my probation was over. Sure I could of given her words but whats the use. yes government will find out their faults soon enough. In the meantime the ones’ on the registry still suffer in many ways.
I am not a gay man, but I’ve A ton of respect for Galen! Why? He defended himself using due processes! That’s what it takes.. you know. Just love how he basically said, So what!? Try me. I’m certain Galen found catharsis in opting to contest just like I’ve done in 7 FTR indictments since 1998. Yep! Some folks run to a fire, while most other run, or do nothing. His story really proves just how engrained and toxic the socio-legal environment is in the nation. According to this court Galen’s Civil prosecution was unlawful, and indeed state agents acted capriciously by hiring a new expert. In short, the prosecutorial class loves to cheat. Wrongfulconvictionsblog.org made a report in 2020-1 making the same point. https://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/