N.J. Man Spared 7 Years in Prison for Guns Legally Owned

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

A New Jersey man serving seven years in prison for possessing two legally-owned guns, disassembled and in the trunk of his car while moving residences, has had his sentence commuted.

Brian Aitken, 25, a successful media consultant, had been in the process of selling his home in Colorado and moving to a suburban New Jersey apartment to be closer to his son, 2, when he was arrested in a bizarre sequence of events.

His lawyers had called the subsequent trial and conviction the "perfect storm of injustice."

Thousands of gun owners across the country rallied to Aitken's cause, with more than 15,000 joining Facebook support group calling for his release.

Gov. Chris Christie signed an order Monday night that commuted Aitken's sentence to time served.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/brian-aitken-jersey-gun-charge-commuted-gov-chris/story?id=12448867

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Well one thing I agree with Christie about. Been following this case & IMHO this guy was railroaded by the judge & NJ justice system.

[Adsos Letter]

1. Un...beleiveable! 2 handguns, field-stripped and locked up for moving

"The defendant's attorneys presented evidence that his house was for sale and that at the time of arrest he was travelling from one residence in New Jersey to another," Joel Bewley, a spokesman for the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office, told ABC News. "Those points do not establish that the defendant was moving."

And so the judge gave him the mandated 7 YEARS for this. :crazy:

[trud]

2. This is why you never call the police when someone is mentally ill

What you're supposed to do instead, I have no idea, but this guy is lucky he was just jailed and not shot.

[AlbertCat]

3. See... we HAVE gun laws...

.... that you don't even need to follow! So we sure don't need any more! It would just mean more laws not to enforce.

[Kurska]

6. You do not know about this case. He did follow the laws, the judge forbid the jury to know about

the exemption to the gun laws that allows someone to move their firearms in the manner that this man did. The judge in this case was subsequently kicked off the court for a HISTORY of randomly forbidding juries to know about aspects of the law.

This case was a major travesty of justice. He called the police ahead of time, asked how to move his firearms legally, moved them legally, CONSENTED to a search and was sentenced to 7 years.

[fatbuckel]

4. Wheres that story about Waste Management people reporting suspicious behavior?

This guy was arrested by police!

[uberblonde]

5. There's a lot more to this story.

The guy was reported by his MOTHER after he started talking about how life wasn't worth living, etc.:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/21/christie-commutes-sentence-man-sent-jail-owning-guns-legally/

On Jan. 2, 2009, Aitken, an entrepreneur and media consultant with no prior criminal record, muttered to his mother that life wasn't worth living after a planned visit with son was abruptly canceled at the last minute. Aitken then left his mother's home in Mount Laurel as she called police, who later found two locked and unloaded handguns in the trunk of his car.

<...> In an e-mail to FoxNews.com this month, Joel Bewley, a spokesman for the Burlington County prosecutor's office, said "no evidence" was presented during the trial to support Aitken's claim that he was moving at the time of his arrest. And despite an appearance on FoxNews.com's "Strategy Room" in August 2009 to discuss his case, Aitken did not testify at his trial.

"However, his roommate testified that they had been sharing the Hoboken apartment since June 2008, and that he had seen the guns at the apartment in September 2008," Bewley wrote. " mother testified that he had been living in Hoboken and working in New York City since June 2008. This incident occurred in January 2009."

[Creative]

7. The anti-gun nuts are nuts...!