Reid My Lips
Claim: Judge William Young delivers stinging rebuke to "shoe bomber"
terrorist Richard Reid at his sentencing hearing.
CORRECTLY ATTRIBUTED
United States v. Reid — Final Statements by Judge Young
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 consecutive one with the other. That's 80 years.
On Count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years consecutive to
the 80 years just imposed. The Court imposes upon you on each of the eight
counts a fine of $250,000 for the 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 the $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
not go any further.
This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes. It is a fair and
a just sentence. It is a righteous sentence. Let me explain this to you.
We are not afraid of any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are
Americans. We have been through the fire before. There is all too much war
talk here. And I say that to everyone with the utmost respect.
Here in this court where 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 it is the officers of
government who do it or your attorney who does it, or that happens to be
your view, you are a terrorist.
And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not treat 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're a big fellow. But
you're not that big. You're no warrior. I know warriors. You are a
terrorist. A species of criminal guilty of multiple attempted murders.
In a very real sense Trooper Santiago had it right when first you were taken
off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the press and where
the TV crews were and you said you're no big deal. You're no big deal.
What your counsel, 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 winds carry freedom. They carry 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 seek that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on
your behalf and have filed appeals, will go on in their, their
representation of you before other judges. We care about it. 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. 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 still
stands for freedom. You know it always will. Custody, Mr. Officer. Stand him
down.
Origins: On 22 December 2001, Richard Colvin Reid, a 29-year-old British
citizen flying as a passenger on American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to
Miami, attempted to ignite what other passengers described as a wire
protruding from one of his shoes. When Reid attacked a flight attendant who
confronted him about this suspicious activity, other passengers responded to
the commotion and rushed to help subdue him. According to various accounts,
one French man reached over the seat to pin Reid's arms as he struggled
while other passengers held his legs; a doctor on board sedated Reid while
another passenger wielded a fire extinguisher as a weapon. After passengers
finally restrained Reid using belts and anything else available for the
purpose, they were eventually able to remove his shoe.
What Reid had been trying to ignite was a fuse leading to plastic explosives
hidden in the sole of his high-top suede sport shoe — enough
explosives, prosecutors later maintained, to blow a hole in the fuselage of
the plane and kill all 197 people aboard. (His plot failed, authorities
speculated, because his shoes were moist from sweat.) Flight 63 was diverted
to Boston, where Reid was taken into custody.
As U.S. federal prosecutors prepared their case against "shoe bomber" Reid
on eight charges (including attempted murder and attempted use of a weapon
of mass destruction), he surprised them in October 2002 by pleading guilty
to all charges in order to spare his family pain and publicity. Reid
maintained that he was a member of al-Qaida, pledged his support to Osama
bin Laden, and declared himself an enemy of the United States. Prosecutors
and the FBI said witnesses had reported Reid was present at al-Qaida
training camps, and that he had help making the bomb from an al-Qaida bomb
maker.
At his hearing on 30 January 2003, Reid was sentenced to life imprisonment
by Judge William Young. After admitting his guilt to the court for the
record, Reid also admitted his "allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam, and
to the religion of Allah," defiantly stated "I think I ought not apologize
for my actions," and told the court "I am at war with your country." Judge
Young then delivered the statement quoted above, a stinging condemnation of
Reid in particular and terrorists in general.
Additional information:
Transcript of Reid hearing Transcript of Reid hearing (CNN)
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/shoebomb.asp
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