Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Paul Kevin Curtis: Ricin Charges Dropped

The charges against Paul Kevin Curtis have been dropped.

Authorities completely screwed up and accused an innocent man.

From Reuters, via the Chicago Tribune:

U.S. prosecutors dropped charges against a Mississippi man accused of sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and a U.S. senator, according to a court order signed by a judge on Tuesday.

The decision came hours after Paul Kevin Curtis was released from a Mississippi jail on bond.

In a court order dismissing the charges, prosecutors said the "ongoing investigation has revealed new information" without providing any additional detail.

Curtis told a news conference afterward that he respected Obama and would never harm a public servant. "I love this country," he said.

...Christi McCoy, Curtis' attorney, told CNN she believed her client had been framed. The Clarion Ledger newspaper reported that law enforcement officials searched the house of a second Mississippi man in connection with the case. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Oxford, Mississippi, did not return calls for comment.

"I do believe that someone who was familiar and is familiar with Kevin just simply took his personal information and did this to him," McCoy told CNN. "It is absolutely horrific that someone would do this."

Curtis was arrested last Wednesday at his home in Corinth, Mississippi. He was charged with mailing letters to Obama, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi and a state judge containing a substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin, a highly lethal poison made from castor beans.

...Curtis, known in Mississippi as an Elvis impersonator, was held in the Lafayette County Detention Center prior to his release. He was charged with threatening to harm Obama and using the mail to make other threats.
An innocent man is jailed and a terrorist, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is questioned by the FBI and allowed to go about his business. His business, of course, was killing four people and maiming and injuring hundreds.

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