07.16.13
Ricin Mama to plead not guilty
By reason of insanity or something.
A Texas woman has been charged with federal violations for allegedly sending ricin-laced letters to the president.
Shannon Guess Richardson, a 35-year-old New Boston, Texas, resident, was named in a three-count indictment by a federal grand jury in the Tyler Division of the Eastern District of Texas …
Richardson contacted federal investigators claiming she had found a suspicious substance in the refrigerator and ricin-related internet searches on the couple’s computer, the article says. Investigators say they found evidence that she sent the letters herself.
Richardson’s lawyer, Tonda Curry, told the Associated Press that her client will plead not guilty and that the government must show that the woman had “the requisite mental state??? to prove her actions were a crime.
I’ve not commented on the US government’s spying on the mail program, inadvertantly revealed in one of the indictments hadn’t down in the ricin cluster.
Two reasons: There was no need of it in either the Dutscke or Richardson cases. Dutschke allegedly wanted the FBI to come to Tupelo, MI. And Richardson summoned the agency, allegedly putting a return address on the letters that placed them near her home.
Reason number two: Bruce Ivins, the anthrax mailer, would not have been caught by the program although it was put in place because of him. Ivins drove from Frederick, MD, to a mailbox drop in Princeton, NJ., to send anthrax.
So what is the net effect of the massive spying effort? Virtually nil.