*UPDATE*

Kurt Daims did not win the election for town grand juror. The vote was 1070 to 489. Tell us if your local government has a prosecutor like the grand juror. The authority of the town grand juror is a remnant of the pre-revolutionary elected grand jury system in which justice is accessible to the people at lower levels of government. Such law may be the seed from which the tradition of American justice can be restored.

I am taking steps to enforce the Brattleboro Indictment Resolution.  It is perhaps the only plan for prosecution of Bush that will be in the hands of a willing official.  But the method is legally novel an unfamiliar to the voters. The plan depends on my election Tuesday, March 6th.

A national coalition is assisting my candidacy for Town Grand Juror in little Brattleboro, Vermont : in one respect it is the highest law enforcement position in the nation today.  The Brattleboro town charter grants this office the same powers in the town that the attorney general holds in the state.  Four years ago I authored the Brattleboro Indictment Resolution, for the town to draft indictments against Bush and Cheney for crimes against our Constitution (including war crimes).  So, by law the town grand juror has both the power of prosecution and the premise to use these powers against Bush and Cheney.  Coalition counsel Paul Gillies says the approach is novel and viable, though legal challenges are likely.  The authority of the town grand juror is a remnant of the pre-revolutionary elected grand jury system in which justice is accessible to the people at lower levels of government.  Such law may be the seed from which the tradition of American justice can be restored.

As town grand juror I can accompany other attorneys into the court to represent the town.  The crimes of Bush and Cheney are not spelled out in the resolution that forms the basis of the indictment.  The job of the grand juror will be to convene a jury and determine the charges. The charges could be for murder, as specified by Vincent Bugliosi, torture as specified by Francis Boyle and Sandra Finley, or fraud (conspiracy) as specified by Elizabeth de La Vega.   If crimes against humanity are considered, then universal jurisdiction would apply.  See the legal memorandum by Harold Burbank and Francis Boyle (attached).

By state law town governments have the discretion to act on advisory resolutions.  Ordinances re mandatory; resolutions are advisory.  They provide a premise and are actionable: famous examples:  the Tonkin Resolution, the Authorization for Use of Military Force, starting the “War on Terror”,  was a resolution .

The fed has declined to prosecute, and so have the states.  We advocates of justice can’t just keep asking them and petitioning them to do it.  We have to bang our heads on a different wall.  If I draft an indictment, then the issue will present itself to higher government in a different form, for example as a request for extradition.

Our chances of election are improved if we get people out to vote or if my other initiatives gain some good publicity — the EMDOVY resolution (for eminent domain over VY, the nearby nuclear power plant) and a Wall Street tax.  Eminent domain was instrumental in closing a nuclear plant on Long Island, and the proposal  is now actually under review of legal council for the state legislature.  The Wall Street tax could bring money to the town, maybe even reduce other taxes, and is just about ready to publicize.  I also spearheaded a “Save American Democracy” amendment resolution, which is on the ballot.  These things could help bring supportive people to the polls.

Brattleboro voters supported the indictment resolution because they wanted justice for the troops, the torture victims and the dead civilians, and will favor me for town grand juror for the same reasons, but they are unaware of the significance of the office.  But we cannot be complacent about this.  Voter turnout will be low and conservative.   Promise that you will help get the vote out.   Even if you are out of state, you can help.  The election is March 6.  Contact us NOW.

Brattleboro Town Charter Addendum C:    “THE GRAND JUROR has the same power in the town as the attorney general has within the state . . .”
online:  Brattleboro.org >> Public records maps and documents >> Charter page 17

Attachments
references in town grand juror in Vermont statutes and documents
memo on universal jurisdiction
text of Brattleboro Indictment Resolution

ENDORSEMENTS:
Daniel Ellsberg
Former Pentagon analyst who revealed the “Pentagon Papers”, Right Livelihood laureate
Bob Bowman
Lt Colonel USAF (retired) Director of “Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) under Reagan
Ron Fisher
Captain US Navy, (retired), Military Prosecution Counsel
Sue Serpa,
New England Impeachment Coalition
Dick Cheney
patriot,  Maumee, Ohio
(VFP War Crimes Action group had to withdraw its endorsement because of tax status)

BACKGROUND

THE START OF WAR CRIMES TRIBUNALS FOR BUSH AND CHENEY IN BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT

By 2007 it was clear that the Impeachment movement needed a new strategy.  The appeals have been made to the usual high government officials.   By 2010 attorney general Holder, every district attorney and every attorney general in the US been contacted about prosecuting Bush — almost three thousand of them.  Not one indictment has been issued. Not one investigation has been started.  In Canada as in the US, by now it should be clear that the Justice movement needs an alternative strategy, one that does not rely on central government.

Announcement and Declaration of Jurisdiction

December, 2007 (revised)

People used to say impeachment was too divisive. But that’s like saying “United We Stand.”. They used to say it was too radical. Now it’s the patriotic way. It is uniting the mainstream, while former White House staff are writing tell-all books and the Republican Party is falling apart. This is progress, but that doesn’t mean Impeachment will happen. It’s time for the mainstream to ask: if Congress doesn’t do it, shouldn’t Bush still be arrested? How could it happen? It could start here, or in Newfane, or Chicago, or it may likely start in any city that has voted for impeachment. Or, if this were 1776, John Hancock and his brave friends might make it happen like this (apologies to Thomas Jefferson):

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, — that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to amend it. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by changing the governments to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations evinces a design to reduce us under absolute despotism, and in Congress our repeated petitions are answered only by high-minded resignation, it is our right, it is our duty, to rescue such government, and to provide new methods for the prosecution of such despotism.

We, therefore, the residents of Brattleboro, Vermont, in the United States of America, appealing to the people of the world for the decency of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these states, solemnly publish and declare, that we share, and of right ought to share a Universal Jurisdiction, that this jurisdiction is supported by the Geneva Accords, the Nuremberg Charter and other of the highest American law, that by this jurisdiction we can arrest and prosecute George Bush and Richard Cheney, that we are absolved from all liability to the federal and state governments for the declaration and use of this jurisdiction, and that in this  crisis of staggering governmental failure and crime, we have full power to arrest suspects, conduct trials, incarcerate offenders, and to do all other acts which independent jurisdictions may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

The founding fathers were outraged by the loss of just a few lives and liberties. Obviously, they were not afraid of a little divisiveness. But we are a different people now – still forthright, but more comfortable, more pragmatic. We patriots of today would rather keep our lives, anyway, and sign something like this:

Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities, and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro Police, pursuant to the above-mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecute or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them

Today again some people will cry “It’s too radical”, “It’s too divisive”. That’s the liberal way of saying “United we Stand”. It shows only fear of disagreement. To believe in free speech, we must believe America is strengthened by disagreement, because the tolerance of it is the essence of free speech. Don’t worry that other people will find it too radical. Just ask yourself. . . . slowly: . . . if Congress doesn’t do it, shouldn’t Bush still be indicted ?

Municipal prosecution of Bush was barely started in San Francisco, Jackson Wyoming, and Kennebunkport, Maine.  There senatorial candidate Laurie. Dobson commissioned the first legal memorandum on municipal jurisdiction over war crimes (see LEGAL BASIS).