BELLEVUE, WA – In yet another insult to justice and common sense, the ultra-liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the armed robbery conviction of California bank robber Deshon Rene Odom because he “never intentionally displayed the gun.”
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) today called the May 21 ruling “more proof that this court needs a cleaning.”
“This is just the latest outrage from a federal appeals court that makes a habit out of handing down irresponsible decisions,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “This is the same court that insists law-abiding Americans have no right to own guns, but now says an armed bank robber shouldn’t get the maximum punishment because he never intended that anyone see his illegally-carried handgun.”
The ruling was written by Judge Richard R. Clifton of Hawaii. It noted incredibly, “Can a bank robber with a concealed gun who never mentions or insinuates having one, but who displays it inadvertently, be convicted of armed bank robbery? We believe the answer is no…” Odom pulled the robbery with an accomplice and both were arrested outside the bank. They were both carrying loaded revolvers.
“I thought the Ninth Circuit had hit bottom when it ruled the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional, and said the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right,” Gottlieb marveled, “but I was wrong. I suspected this court had lost its bearing, but now it appears the judges have lost their marbles.
“This court,” Gottlieb added, “would no doubt uphold the conviction of any law-abiding citizen who inadvertently carried a legally-licensed gun into, say, a school or some other restricted area. Yet ‘here come da’ judge’ with a ruling that a deliberately armed thug who accidentally flashed his loaded gun during a bank holdup is somehow innocent of armed robbery.
“The Ninth Circuit Court needs a thorough house-cleaning,” Gottlieb concluded. “With goofy rulings like this, it is no wonder they call this bunch the ‘Ninth Circus Court,’ and it has a record of being the most overturned appeals court in the nation. When common sense was handed out, the Ninth Circuit was obviously out to lunch, and it stayed there.”