Sunday 1 October 2006

Canadian teen obtains justice in Pennsylvania

The Amazing Wonderdog delivers the denouement of the Travis Biehn story, which was big news last year, but is now being neglected in the media.
Travis Biehn, the Newfoundland-born teenager who was convicted in Pennsylvania last year of making a bomb threat against his school and possessing explosives, has won his appeal. Biehn's conviction was overturned last month, and the DA has not filed a counter-appeal.

...

Fear is what this whole sorry story is about. Biehn was charged, in the absence of evidence, because of fear. He was convicted, based on innuendo, in a climate of fear. His conviction became news touted by a media that acts to magnify that fear, and commented on by bloggers who were, by and large, too busy pissing themselves to use their brains.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and Biehn has been cleared. Diane Gibbons, the District Attorney who was attempting re-election at the time, had tried to make Biehn's nationality an issue, although the judge (also named Biehn, but unrelated), who clearly didn't like Travis, had said that anti-Americanism was not a factor.

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