If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try AgainNearly two years after the administration rolled out its big bust of the so-called “Liberty City Seven” (though they’ll always be the Seas of David crew to us), the government has decided that the group of paintballers , whose leader used to roam the streets of Miami in a bathrobe, is such a continued threat that the government, after two trials ended in a hung jury, will be going for the hat trick:
Federal prosecutors announced plans Wednesday to retry six Florida men on terrorism charges despite two consecutive mistrials in a case once trumpeted as a success in the government’s war on terrorism.“We’ve worked very hard this past week, reviewing everything in this case and considering it very, very seriously,” prosecutor Richard Gregorie said in Miami federal court. “The United States has decided it’s necessary to proceed … one more time.”…
The two trials have cost several million dollars, including fees for court-appointed defense lawyers and prosecutors’ salaries. Providing security for the two trials has cost more than $1 million, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
“Enough is enough,” said defense lawyer David O. Markus. “The feds are always saying that they don’t have enough resources, so why are they clinging to this money-draining case?”