He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. –
It has been awhile since I last posted. There has NOT been a lot of movement with the sting cases. Hope has dwindled. Cases lingered with little signs of resolution. Things have been a bit bleak and I say that being on the outside, not incarcerated. I recently read the book Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. It provides a little spark of inspiration by a professional psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust in various concentration camps. How can one survive such suffering? The introduction noted that WE have the freedom to choose how we will respond to the situation even though forces beyond our control can take away everything. What will we feel and do about what happens to ourselves? We each have the FREEDOM to choose how we will respond to our own suffering. It is about the attitude one takes. It is about reconciliation. If you can’t change the situation then change yourself. Suffering is a part of life and we must all overcome that one way or another.
A Washington State Institute for Public Policy Study on these Net Nanny stings due out in June of 2023. Originally we were hoping for June of 2022 but it got pushed out. A dashing of hope for some as it will compare the stings to real crimes, likely showing the sentencing disparity and how those arrested are quite different from those with actual victim crimes yet we treat them both the same. It is a heavy burden for one to bear coming out facing lifetime community custody and indefinite registration.
Alas, there is SOME hope we can draw from. A Supreme Court Sting Case in Washington State did AFFIRM a lower courts decision that ENTRAPMENT should NOT have been denied in the lower court. This is BIG because of the 51 or so trials conducted in the State of Washington for these Net Nanny stings around HALF asked to use the Entrapment argument (yes, sadly only about half). Of those cases, only 6 were allowed to use Entrapment and the remaining 18 or so were DENIED the argument. This gives some hope to those cases where it was denied. It won’t guarantee a victory but it does give the defense more of a fighting chance when the jury can decide that everything originated in the minds of law enforcement and without their enticement and luring this would not have happened.
Little by little cases are being resolved (still about 40-45 left) in the state of Washington. Some of the pleas have been more reasonable (< 1 year). I believe more diversion programs and opportunities to avoid felony’s and sex offenses would be better suited. It can be done if prosecutors offices so choose. There is still some hope that the remainder will be resolved with a better outcome, especially with the new Supreme Court decision which should allow the entrapment argument for all future trials. And eventually the WSIPP study.
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. – [NIV: Jeremiah 29:11]
We can overcome this,
-Samuel