Buju Banton -- Guilty Verdict!

BREAKING -- Buju Banton found guilty.

Buju Banton Trial Day!

Buju Jury Instructions

Our friendly neighborhood federal blogger goes to trial this morning in Tampa on behalf of Jamaican reggae artist Buju Banton.

This being the 21st Century, of course there's a FB page:

His fans have launched a letter-writing campaign against his prosecution and plan a rally outside the courthouse when he goes on trial today.

There are also Facebook pages, websites and T-shirts in support of Buju Banton, a four-time, Grammy-nominated reggae musician facing federal drug charges in a case his lawyer says was entrapment.

More than 100 people have responded to a Facebook invitation posted by Tampa area supportersto rally outside the federal courthouse on North Florida Avenue.

"I'm sure there's going to be a lot of people showing up," said fan Kay Bonacci, 58, of Largo. "This is a big thing. This isn't just America. This is all over the world."

Because I'm a wonk, I checked out the voir dire and proposed jury instructions just to see how they were framed.

And indeed you can get a good sense of where David is going with the defense from the proposed jury instructions, which deal with nice things like entrapment, testimony of co-defendant with plea agreement, and other instructions civil lawyers rarely encounter.

Buju Banton Trial Delayed.

I see David noted that nice article on Judge Cohn.

Lots of good stuff in there, but this part stuck out:

Growing up in Tuskegee, Ala., during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 60s, the Cohns owned a store and were one of two Jewish families in town. There was no synagogue so Cohn, his parents and his two sisters drove 40 miles west to the Reform temple in Montgomery for religious classes. "The worst part of it was I missed the first half of the NFL game," Cohn said wryly.

Cohn witnessed and was disturbed by racism against African-Americans. At an early age, he became acutely aware that his own heritage was also perceived as alien in the South.

"You want to assimilate, you don't want to be different, no kid wants to be different," Cohn said. "On the other hand, you want to maintain your Jewish heritage and traditions."

Hey, that's pretty much the first five chapters of Sarah Silverman's new book (except she grew up in rural New Hampshire and is way cuter than Judge Cohn -- no offense).

Meanwhile, Mr. Markus should have lots more time to prepare for trial, thanks to MD FL Judge Moody:

Banton's trial on drug charges originally was scheduled for April 19, the date Banton requested. But 11 days before the trial was set to start, U.S. District Judge James Moody moved it to June 21.

The defense objected, citing the cost of rearranging travel for witnesses and noting that Banton would be held in jail longer.

Moody overruled the objections.

I'm a civil litigator, so the concept of a "speedy trial" is not something generally in my lexicon.

But "justice delayed is justice denied" definitely rings a bell, or maybe I'm thinking of Dylan's "Tomorrow is a Long Time"?

Either way, I vividly remember Professor Stotsky repeating it over and over again....