Give Process Its Due
Human Rights and Moral Principles Reject Extra-Judicial Killings
by Jerry Elmer
In early 1998, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan), Mary Jo White, convened a grand jury; and, on June 10, 1998, 
the grand jury handed up a criminal indictment against a certain man who was, then, a fugitive from justice. The eight-page indictment alleged several serious federal felonies. Some years later a successor grand jury expanded the original indictment; it grew to 29 pages, and alleged many criminal violations, including capital crimes. The alleged criminal remained a fugitive.
In August 2010, President Obama came to believe that he knew the whereabouts of the indicted, but untried, man. The President did not have the fugitive arrested so that he could be tried on the criminal charges pending against him (as the law requires). Instead, the President resorted to a hit squad — a group of heavily armed men that went after the indicted, but untried, individual. (more…)
