Terrorism

Case summaries below.

Yu Kikumura

United States v. Yu Kikumura, 918 F.2d 1084 (3rd Cir. 1990); Read opinion here; See also.

      Accused member of the Japanese Red Army arrested at the Vince Lombardi Service Area in New Jersey, while in possession of three fully operational pipe bombs made from large fire extinguishers and filled with shrapnel.  The government claimed, without proof, that the defendant was on his way to bomb a gathering place for American servicemen in Philadelphia.  This alleged target was supposed retaliation for the Reagan-ordered 1986 American air attack and bombing of Libya, claiming a number of civilian targets.  Skipping to the end—Kikumura was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison through the use of new “terrorism” enhancements to the sentencing guidelines.  The sentence was later reduced to 21 years on appeal, and Kikumura was released in 2007 and deported to Japan. 

      For still young Kuby, the most striking thing about the case was the way the prosecutor (a then young, freshly minted U.S. Attorney named Samuel Alito), the Judge (a Marine reserve captain), and the police (a young N.J. State Trooper who claimed he stopped Kikumura because he looked like he didn’t “belong” ) were willing to distort law and fact beyond all reason and evidence to justify a clearly illegal search, in order to get a guy that they believed to be a really really bad guy.  It was one thing to watch this on television or read about it happening long ago.  It was quite another to watch it roll out in a federal courthouse. 

You can read more here.