Kendall Coffey Slams the "Affluenza" Defense

Kendall Coffey on News Nation

Last week, Tamron Hall invited Kendall Coffey onto News Nation on MSNBC to discuss the latest high profile case in Texas, that of Ethan Couch.  The teenager is from a rich family and used his priviliged upbringing as a defense for killing four people in a drunk driving incident.  The judge sentenced him to ten years of probation and no jail time.

Kendall Coffey asserted that the defense was "appalling" and the case made the entire justice system look bad.  He further insisted that if "affluenza" is an actual condition, then it can be treated with fairness and accountability.  That would include jail time in this case.

Ethan Couch's lawyer told the media that taking Ethan away from his family for rehabilitation was the punishment that the teenager deserved.

Attorney Scott Brown said, "The consequences are that he is taken away from his family, he’s taken away from all the things that he’s been given.  He’s not going to have the truck to drive, he’s not going to have all the other things that he’s used to.  He’s not going to going to have his Xbox, he won’t have alcohol or drugs.  We are taking him away from his family and teaching him to be a responsible citizen, that’s a consequence."

The reply from Kendall Coffey was rich with sarcasm. 

"I’m grief stricken.  No Xbox? I’ll tell you how to keep someone if he needs to be somewhat removed from his parents- prison will do that."

Kendall Coffey continued, "And I want to come back to something you just mentioned.  What about a poor child who through no fault of his or her own is a victim of abuse, lives in a community that is fraught with peril, and makes some mistakes in life.  Does the system forgive you for that? There’s hardly any forgiveness at all. I’m sorry Tamron, but the contrast is just so dramatic, between rich and poor, as illustrated by this case."

 

Rod Blagojevich Drama Continues

 The appeal of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s conviction and 14-year prison sentence has entered its final stage. Blagojevich was convicted of misusing his powers as Governor of Illinois in 2011 and believed to be committing “pay to play” schemes, including selling Barack Obama’s Senate seat after the 2008 presidential election.

 On July 13^th, 2013, Blagojevich filed an appeal with the 7^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. The appeal cites a judicial predisposition and jury bias. Blagojevich will have to convince the court that his convictions were unfitting and that the trial could have had a different outcome.

 The former Governor of Illinois was tried twice, in which the first trial had the jury hung on 23 counts and a conviction for one charge: lying to the FBI. In his book “Spinning the Law”, Kendall Coffey discussesBlagojevich’s first trial where a juror was quoted saying that “he was just talking” during his testimony and creating a new “blabbermouth” defense.

 In the book, Kendall Coffey states, “…the reality remained that by arresting Blagojevich before his wheeling and dealing reached actual stealing, prosecutors left some room for him to claim he may have neared the line of crime but never crossed it.”

 “Unless a ‘smoking gun’ shows stealing, it’s harder to convict for wheeling and dealing,” is Kendall Coffey’s spinning lesson for Blagojevich’s first trial.

Flickr CC via The Rachel Maddow Show

 In June 2011, Blagojevich was re-tried where he was found guilty of 17 remaining charges and sentenced to 14 years in federal prison.

 Blagojevich was elected governor in 2002 after serving on the U.S. House of Representatives for Chicago. Blagojevich has been incarcerated since March 2012 at a low-security prison in Denver. If his appeal is not granted, he will remain in prison until 2024.

Kendall Coffey on Elian Gonzalez Interview

Kendall Coffey- Elian Gonzalez

When Elian Gonzalez was six years old, he was fighting to stay in the United States, according to most who knew them.  Kendall Coffey was a U.S. attorney at the time of the high profile case.  Eventually Gonzalez went back to Cuba, where his father resides. 

In a recent interview with Cuban media, Elian Gonzalez denounced the United States government as imperialist and said that anti-Cuban freedom fighters only caused harm and pain.  Kendall Coffey told Steve Malzberg on Newsmax that his words were straight from the mouth of the Cuban government. 

“He was very happy to be in the United States when he was here," said Kendall Coffey.

"Of course he wanted his father to be with him, but he was very happy to be here at the time. We predicted at the time that he would become a trophy of the Castro regime, and that he would be indoctrinated and be fed a script of whatever the regime wanted him to say.  You and listeners can decide whether that prediction has come to pass. With respect to his mother, which is someone who we all feel very strongly about, she sacrificed her life to bring her son to freedom.  Many have lost their lives to come here and it’s a reminder of how incredibly lucky we are to live in the United States, because 90% of the rest of the world would give most anything to be here where you and I walk and breathe and enjoy life everyday.”

Some speculate that the Elian Gonzalez interview was an attempt by Cuba to start negotiations to free five men convicted of espionage in Miami.  Gonzalez called for President Obama to pardon them in the piece.  

Gonzalez was found near the shores of Florida in 1999, after a boat escaping Cuba had capsized and killed most of the passengers, including Gonzalez' mother.  Relatives in the United States fought to keep Gonzalez, but he was eventually sent back to Cuba.