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malaise

(267,833 posts)
Fri Jan 20, 2017, 06:57 AM Jan 2017

Is treason punished these days?

Isn't it a little too coincidental and convenient that Groper Don the Con rented that old post office building and built a hotel just in time for the hacking of all time.

I can't wait for the total and complete unraveling of this mess.

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Is treason punished these days? (Original Post) malaise Jan 2017 OP
not if you are a republican. putitinD Jan 2017 #1
Treason has rarely been punished outside of war time and workers striking HoneyBadger Jan 2017 #2
Those examples pale in comparison to malaise Jan 2017 #3
The point is that there is no declared war and no declared strike HoneyBadger Jan 2017 #4
Obviously you are unlikely to get clemency after being executed or disappearing HoneyBadger Jan 2017 #5
IOKIYAR Achilleaze Jan 2017 #6
IOKIYAR get the red out Jan 2017 #7
 

HoneyBadger

(2,297 posts)
2. Treason has rarely been punished outside of war time and workers striking
Fri Jan 20, 2017, 07:08 AM
Jan 2017

This is it for the last century. Probably none of these people would be convicted in today's enlightened times. Pleople that talk about treason tend not to know anything about it.

William Bruce Mumford, convicted of treason and hanged in 1862 for tearing down a United States flag during the American Civil War.

Walter Allen was convicted of treason on September 16, 1922 for taking part in the 1921 Miner's March with the coal companies and the US Army on Blair Mountain, West Virginia. He was sentenced to 10 years and fined. During his appeal to the Supreme Court he disappeared while out on bail. United Mineworkers of America leader William Blizzard was acquitted of the charge of treason by the jury on May 25, 1922.

Herbert Hans Haupt, German-born naturalized U.S. citizen, was convicted of treason in 1942 and executed after being named as a German spy by fellow German spies defecting to the United States.

Martin James Monti, United States Army Air Forces pilot, convicted of treason for defecting to the Waffen SS in 1944. He was paroled in 1960.

Robert Henry Best, convicted of treason on April 16, 1948 and served a life sentence.
Iva Toguri D'Aquino, who is frequently identified with "Tokyo Rose" convicted 1949. Subsequently, pardoned by President Gerald Ford.

Mildred Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally", convicted of treason on March 8, 1949; served 12 years of a 10- to 30-year prison sentence.

Tomoya Kawakita, sentenced to death for treason in 1952, but eventually released by President John F. Kennedy to be deported to Japan.

 

HoneyBadger

(2,297 posts)
4. The point is that there is no declared war and no declared strike
Fri Jan 20, 2017, 07:34 AM
Jan 2017

So treason Is unlikely to be considered.

 

HoneyBadger

(2,297 posts)
5. Obviously you are unlikely to get clemency after being executed or disappearing
Fri Jan 20, 2017, 07:42 AM
Jan 2017

But most of the rest did, meaning the convictions of treason were later reconsidered.

I found the world of Walter Allen to be really interesting....as a perspective on the working class and the most recent election. William Blizzard lead 20 thousand armed vets against the US and they sill could not convict him of treason.

I wonder why Leonard Peltier was not one of the treason guys. Armed insurrection against the US, dead FBI, seems like a slam dunk. Maybe because there were no cooperating witnesses.

In August 1921, armed coal miners from the Kanawha Valley and the southern counties of Boone, Fayette, Mingo, McDowell, and Logan gathered at Marmet in Kanawha County. The miners proposed to march to Logan and Mingo counties to rescue union miners who had been jailed or mistreated in attempts to unionize the mines. Their efforts brought on the most spectacular confrontation in West Virginia’s labor history, the culminating event in the era known as the Mine Wars.

While accurate figures are not available, sources estimate the number of miners who participated in the march at anywhere from 7,000 to 20,000. Many were veterans of World War I, and they organized themselves like an army division. The marchers had medical and supply units, posted guards when appropriate, and used passwords to weed out infiltrators. Marchers commandeered trains and other vehicles to take them to Logan County and confiscated supplies from company stores along the march.

State authorities, led by Governor Morgan, quickly organized a group of state police, volunteer militia companies, and coal company employees to keep the miners from invading Logan County. The opposing forces came together at Blair Mountain, near the Boone and Logan borders. The well-armed miners and their opponents battled along the ridge of Blair Mountain, resulting in several deaths. Like other statistics in this event, the exact numbers of killed and wounded are mere conjecture.

Morgan urgently requested federal intervention to end the bloodshed. President Warren G. Harding responded with 2,500 federal troops, including a bomber squadron under aviation pioneer Gen. William ‘‘Billy’’ Mitchell. The federal troops quickly brought the conflict to an end, and the miners returned home. Several hundred miners and their leaders were charged with various crimes from murder to treason. Most were given minor sentences, but serious attempts were made to punish William ‘‘Bill’’ Blizzard, one of the march leaders, who was charged with treason. He was tried in Charles Town, Lewisburg, and Fayetteville before the charges were eventually dropped.

The armed march and the Battle of Blair Mountain resulted in little or no gain for union miners, but the hostilities created by labor strife from the early 1900s to the 1920s color labor relations in West Virginia to the present.

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