|
"Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the
Court imposes upon you.
On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life
in prison in the custody of the United States
Attorney General. On counts 2, 3, 4 and 7, the Court
sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence on
each count to run consecutively. (That is 80 years.)
On count 8 the Court
sentences you to the mandatory 30 years again, to be served
consecutively to the 80 years just imposed. The
Court imposes upon you for each of the eight counts a fine of
$250,000 that's an aggregate fine of $2 million. The Court accepts
the government's recommendation with respect to restitution and
orders restitution in the amount of $298.17 to Andre Bousquet and
$5,784 to American Airlines.
The Court imposes upon you
an $800 special assessment.
The Court imposes upon you five years supervised release simply
because the law requires it. But the life sentences are real life
sentences so I need go no further.
This is the sentence that is
provided for by our statutes. It is a fair and just sentence. It
is a righteous sentence.
Now, let me explain this to
you. We are not afraid of you or any of your terrorist
co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been through
the fire before. There is too much war talk here and I say that to
everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this court, we deal with
individuals as individuals and care for individuals as individuals.
As human beings, we reach out for justice.
You are not an enemy
combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war.
You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to call you a
soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether the officers of
government do it or your attorney does it, or if you think you are
a soldier. You are not --- you are a
terrorist. And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not
meet with terrorists. We do not sign documents with terrorists.
We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice.
So war talk is way out of
line in this court. You are a big fellow. But you are not that
big. You're no warrior. I've known warriors. You are a terrorist.
A species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted murders.
In a very real sense, State Trooper Santiago
had it right when you first were taken off that plane and
into custody and you wondered where the press and the TV crews
were, and he said: "You're no big deal."
You are no big deal.
What
your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys
have grappled with and what I have as honestly as I know how tried
to grapple with, is why you did something so horrific. What was it
that led you here to this courtroom today?
I have listened respectfully
to what you have to say. And I ask you to search your heart and ask
yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led you to do what you are
guilty and admit you are guilty of doing? And, I have an answer
for you. It may not satisfy you, but as I search this entire
record, it comes as close to understanding as I know.
It seems to me you hate the one
thing that to us is most precious. You hate our freedom. Our
individual freedom. Our individual freedom to live as we choose,
to come and go as we choose, to believe or not believe as we
individually choose. Here, in this society, the very wind carries
freedom. It carries it everywhere from sea to shining sea. It is
because we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in
this beautiful courtroom. So that everyone can see, truly see,
that justice is administered fairly, individually, and discretely.
It is for freedom's sake that your lawyers are striving so
vigorously on your behalf, have filed appeals, will go on in their
representation of you before other judges.
We Americans are all about
freedom. Because we all know that the way we treat you, Mr. Reid,
is the measure of our own liberties. Make no mistake though. It
is yet true that we will bear any burden; pay any price, to
preserve our freedoms. Look around this courtroom. Mark it
well. The world is not going to long remember what you or I say
here. The day after tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this,
however, will long endure.
Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America,
the American people will gather to see that justice, individual
justice, justice, not war, individual justice is in fact being done.
The very President of the United States through his officers
will have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence on which
specific matters can be judged and juries of citizens will gather to
sit and judge that evidence democratically, to mold and shape and
refine our sense of justice.
See that flag, Mr. Reid? That's the flag of the United States of
America. That flag will fly there long after this is all
forgotten. That flag stands for freedom. And it always will.
Mr. Custody Officer. Stand him down."
End Quote |