Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Not Everything That is Lawful is Wise

1/2/23 DNYUS:

ATLANTA — Two days after a gunman killed 10 people at a Colorado grocery store, leaving many Americans on high alert, Rico Marley was arrested as he emerged from the bathroom at a Publix supermarket in Atlanta. He was wearing body armor and carrying six loaded weapons — four handguns in his jacket pockets, and in a guitar bag, a semiautomatic rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun.

Moments earlier, an Instacart delivery driver had alerted a store employee after seeing Mr. Marley in the bathroom, along with the AR-15-style rifle, which was propped against a wall. A grand jury indictment later described what had come next: “panic, terror and the evacuation of the Publix.”

Mr. Marley, then 22, was arrested without incident that day in March 2021. His lawyer, Charles Brant, noted that he had not made any threats or fired any shots, and had legally purchased his guns. Mr. Marley did not violate Georgia law, Mr. Brant said; he was “just being a person, doing what he had the right to do.”

Indeed, Mr. Marley’s arrest kicked off a long and as yet unresolved legal odyssey in which the criminal justice system waffled over what it could charge him with and whether to set him free. Clearly, visiting the grocery store with a trove of guns had frightened people. But was it illegal? 

This sounds like a Statute of Northampton example.  I think even here in Idaho, even in small towns, this would provoke considerable fear, or at least concern.  Oh yes:

He pleaded not guilty to the charges in August and remains in custody. (Mr. Brant, his lawyer, said he had not filed a new bond motion on his client’s behalf because Mr. Marley was homeless and did not have family or friends to stay with.) 

Did he spend all his money on guns?  I think the concern might have been rational. 

1 comment:

  1. I'm reminded of Dmitriy Andreychenko. In August of 2019 he openly carried both a handgun and a long gun into a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Springfield, Missouri. He was arrested without incident and later pleaded guilty to making a false report (a misdemeanor). He was received a 180 day suspended jail sentence and two years of probation which he has now completed.

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