In a few weeks a Danish woman will enter Florida after a deal was made that put a Danish politician in charge of the most powerful defense alliance in the world in exchange for not trying this extradition case for the supreme court.
Everybody had expected this case in front of our supreme court because it is the first time a Dane will be sent to a country outside Europe to stand trial.
In order to motivate her to plea of guilt a special deal has been made:
She will be sent back to Denmark not later than 6 month after her sentence has been handed out to serve her time in a Danish prison.
It is totally up to her. If she chooses to fight to clear her name she will have to remain jailed in Florida until the witnesses has been called or extradited to the United States. Most expect a trial could take 3-5 years. Back in Denmark she has a 10 year old daughter, which she now will lose touch with, while this case will be dealt with because the daughter cannot visit due to the distance and oversea phone-calls is not allowed from prison.
None in their right mind would try to get acquitted when facing trial under these conditions. Calling it justice will hardly be the case.
However there is no doubt that she is guilty, because the defense she use is the worthless “Battered wife syndrome”. She entered the United States as a student and fell in love with a boyfriend from Israel. She became citizen in the United States. At some point the relationship turned violent. Later the boyfriend established a drug ring. She lived of the profit of the crime but as a bird in golden cage. She did not know where to turn as she was living in a foreign country without her social network. Girlfriends and wives are killed all the time when they try to break loose from such a relationship even here in Denmark. So she remained in the relationship and gave birth to a daughter. This fact made her guilty according to the sentence in the Faye Copeland case, which ruled out the use of the “battered women syndrome” as defense in criminal cases.
Then the Police arrested the boyfriend. For the Danish woman it was like being liberated from a prison. However the evidence was hard to get. The investigators turned to her in order to force her to testify against the boyfriend. Then she made the next critical error based on her native culture.
In Denmark there is no rule about conspiracy. The police do not prosecute people who deny helping them, even if they must have known something. Denmark is a small country and all things are monitored. When a crime occurs it is standard for the police to get access to all calls made by cell phones in the area just by a rubber stamp down in the court. A secret DNA database holds the records for all children born in Denmark since 1980. When people seek citizenship they also have to provide a DNA-sample. Plea bargains are almost unknown because they require approval from the justice department.
Second it is regarded as very shameful to testify against family. While they were not married the fact that the couple had a daughter made them family. If her giving testimony would become public known it would be so shameful for the family that suicide would be the any method to avoid degrading the entire family.
So she did choose to run. She returned to Denmark and started a modest life. She has not even received a parking ticket since her return. She had no money in the start and lived by friends and family until she got a job. It does not sound as the druglord she is named as in Florida - a title which is securing her a sentence of 63 years in prison.
But how has she been named the druglord? Remember the original case. They had problems with the evidence and as all prosecutors the person in charge could use a high-profile conviction. So after her escape they turned to the boyfriend and promised him a slap on the hand in return for a testimony naming her the boss and he got off with 6 years for smuggling of 100,000 Ecstasy pills.
The Danish public fear for her life and facebook groups in favor of her has been created, but are there reasons for this fear?
The answer to this question relies very much on her decision to clear her name. As stated above nearly all people in the Danish legal system recommend her to give a guilty plea of some kind. Her lawyers should properly consider delivering an Alford plea or No contest plea.
When she arrives in Florida the political situation remains unchanged. A united front between Denmark and the United States against the terrorists in the world is still needed, especially with a Dane in charge of NATO. What they really don’t need right now it a sentence of not guilty or even worse: That the European Court of Human rights declares the entire extradition case inhumane.
Taking her case to this court is exactly what she did yesterday and the answer from the Danish state did at once. Because the case would properly not end up in a conviction at a Danish court, she had been allowed to sleep at home and go to work in return of leaving her passport at the police. If she had any criminal connections she would have long gone, but the courts did not consider her a flight risk – until she appealed to the European court. That’s leave a small hint that someone in a high office wants a conviction.
The government of Denmark is really tired of international courts down in Europe. During the last 10 year we got a real bad whipping due to our immigration laws.
People who know her believe that she could choose to fight. She has been arrested 4 times during various court procedures and she has accepted that she will have to go to Florida. We all are afraid that she chooses to try to clear her name. There are tough prisons and then the dangerous one. Florida have them both and most expect that the conditions and level of safety she has to endure while being detained in Florida very much depend off how fast she will break.
We have to remember that it is not only the politicians who have something to fear. Somewhere in the prosecutor’s office, a person has made a deal with a drug lord just to get her. This deal should be shameful for the tax-payers in Florida. Such a person should lose his job and he knows it. It is needless to say that it would be quiet embarrassing for the prosecutor’s office if the details of such a deal would be shown in court.
So the prosecutors would be really interested in not letting this trial go the entire way. They need a plea bargain. The question which remains to be answered is how far they will go to get it. Would they risk her life?
Most Danish citizens don’t understand this case. They don’t understand why they have to pay for more than two years of case work, prison time and court cases on several levels, when all the prosecutors could have done was to turn the evidence over to the Danish prosecutors, who would have given her a sentence just to satisfy an important partner in the war. They don’t understand why the tax-payers in Florida want to pay for additional prison time and a show trial. 63 year is twice the length of a person who killed four unarmed policemen in Denmark served. She will be given a new sentence the second she re-enters Denmark as part of the deal.
They are beginning to doubt the war on terrorism, which created the law she is extradited based on. This law was introduced in 2002 long after her alleged crimes.
Who is behind this case? Is it Florida who wants to end a long friendly relationship between two nations? If they want that they are about to succeed.
by Jonas Petersen
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