very interesting comparative sentences vs Pollard

[mord]

http://www.jonathanpollard.org/sentences.htm 













Comparative Sentences
The following tables indicate how grossly disproportionate Pollard's life sentence is when compared to the sentences of others who spied for allied nations.

Pollard's life sentence is also disproportionate even when compared to the sentences of those who committed far more serious offences by spying for enemy nations.
Table I: American Allies

    * Jonathan Pollard is the only person in the history of the United States to receive a life sentence for spying for an American ally.
    * On November 21, 2008, Pollard entered the 24th year of his life sentence, with no end in sight.
    * The maximum sentence today for such an offence is 10 years.
    * The median sentence for this offence is 2 to 4 years.

Name    Spied For    Sentence/Punishment    Time Served
Before Release*
Jonathan Pollard    Israel    Life imprisonment    
Michael Schwartz    Saudi Arabia    Discharged from Navy    No time served.
Peter Lee    China    1 year in halfway house    No jail time.
Ronald Montaperto    China    3 months    
Xiaodong Sheldon Meng    China    2 years    
Samuel Morison    Great Britain    2 years    3 months
Phillip Selden    El Salvador    2 years    
Sharon Scranage    Ghana    5 years; reduced to 2 years    8 months
Steven Baba    South Africa    8 years; reduced to 2 years    5 months
Jean Baynes    Phillipines    3 years and 5 months    1 year and 3 months
Geneva Jones    Liberia    3 years and 1 month    
Frederick Hamilton    Ecuador    3 years and 1 month    
J. Reece Roth    China and Iran    4 years    
Abdul Kader Helmy    Egypt    4 years    2 years
Joseph Brown    Phillipines    6 years    
Michael Ray Aquino    Phillipines    6 years and 4 months    
Michael Allen    Phillipines    8 years    
Robert Kim    South Korea    9 years    7 years
Leandro Aragoncillo    Phillipines    10 years    
Thomas Dolce    South Africa    10 years    5.2 years
Steven Lalas    Greece    14 years    

* Time served before release is shown where known. Other cases of early release exist.

Table II: American Enemies
Jonathan Pollard spied for an American ally. This chart shows that Pollard's life sentence is far harsher than most of the sentences received by those who spied for enemies, and thereby committed much more serious offences and treason.

Name    Spied For    Sentence    Time Served
Before Release*
Alberto Coll    Cuba    1 year    
Mohammad Reza Alavi    Iran    15 months    
James Wood    Soviet Union    2 years    
Sahag Dedyan    Soviet Union    3 years    
Elsa Alvarez    Cuba    3 years    
Randy Jeffries    Soviet Union    3-9 years    
Amarylis Santos    Cuba    3½ years    
Joseph Santos    Cuba    4 years    
Carlos Alvarez    Cuba    5 years    
Mariano Faget    Cuba    5 years    
Brian Horton    Soviet Union    6 years    
Alejandro Alonso    Cuba    7 years    
William Bell    Poland    8 years    
Alfred Zoho    East Germany    8 years    
Nikolay Ogarodnikova    Soviet Union    8 years    
Hassan Abu-Jihaad    Al-Qaida    10 years    
Francis X. Pizzo    Soviet Union    10 years    
Daniel Richardson    Soviet Union    10 years    
Ernst Forbich    East Germany    15 years    
William Whalen    Soviet Union    15 years    
Edwin Moore    Soviet Union    15 years    
Troung Dinh Ung    North Vietnam    15 years    
Ronald Humphrey    North Vietnam    15 years    
Kurt Alan Stand    East Germany    17½ years    
Robert Lipka    Soviet Union    18 years    
David Barnett    Soviet Union    18 years    
Svetlana Ogarodnikova    Soviet Union    18 years    
Albert Sombolay    Iraq & Jordan    19 years    
Richard Miller    Soviet Union    20 years    6 years
Theresa Maria Squillacote    East Germany    21.8 years    
Sarkis Paskallan    Soviet Union    22 years    
Harold Nicholson    Soviet Union    23 years    
David Boone    Soviet Union    24 years    
Ana Belen Montes    Cuba    25 years    
Clayton Lonetree    Soviet Union    25 years    9 years
Michael Walker    Soviet Union    25 years    15 years
Bruce Ott    Soviet Union    25 years    
Kelly Warren    Hungary &
Czechoslovakia    25 years    
Earl Pitts    Soviet Union    27 years    
H.W. Boachanhaupi    Soviet Union    30 years    
Roderick Ramsay    Hungary &
Czechoslovakia    36 years    
James Hall    Soviet Union
& East Germany    40 years    
Christopher Boyce    Soviet Union    40 years    
William Kampiles    Soviet Union    40 years    19 years
Veldik Enger    Soviet Union    50 years    
R.P. Charnyayev    Soviet Union    50 years    
Marian Zacharski    Poland    Life    4 years
Aldrich Ames    Soviet Union    Life    
Robert Hanssen    Soviet Union    Life    

* Time served before release is shown where known. Other cases of early release exist.

Aldrich Ames: A Case In Point
Aldrich Ames who spied for an enemy nation (the Soviet Union), committed treason, and was responsible for the deaths of at least 11 American agents, received the same sentence as Jonathan Pollard. Pollard's only indictment was one count of passing classified information to an ally. Pollard spent 7 years in solitary confinement, in the harshest unit of the harshest prison in the Federal system - FCI Marion.

Aldrich Ames' treatment was far more benign, and (except for a relatively short period of time during debriefing) did not include the rigours of long years of solitary; nor was he ever subjected to the harsh conditions of "K" Unit at Marion - even though his offence was far more serious.
See Also:

[mord]

OTHER CASES                http://www.jonathanpollard.org/justice.htm














[Click here to go to specific cases.]

The links below access individual articles and collections of articles on their own sub-pages. These represent a sampling of cases that starkly illustrate the unuallly harsh treatment and grossly disproportionate sentence that Jonathan Pollard received when compared with other recent cases of espionage for both allies and enemies of the US.

For example, compare and contrast the treatment of Jonathan Pollard with that of Steven Lalas, a Greek American who compromised the identities of American agents in the Balkans. Although Lalas did not cooperate, the Government still honored his plea agreement and sentenced him to only 14 years. Pollard's less serious offense and full cooperation with the Government netted him a life sentence, in complete violation of his plea agreement.

Worse still is the case of Lcmdr Michael Schwartz, a non-Jew who spied for Saudi Arabia, an ally of the US, and who got not a single day in prison. Compare that to the life sentence Pollard, a Jew, received for spying for a different ally, Israel. Schwartz was treated with kid gloves and given only a slap on the wrist and a kiss good-bye for his offense - dismissal from his Navy job and loss of rank and pension. Compare and contrast that with the life sentence Pollard received for a similar offense.

Even those who committed far more serious offenses and who spied for enemies of the US received far less severe sentences than Pollard. For example, compare the case of Clayton Lonetree who sold the floor plans of the American embassies in Moscow and Vienna as well as the identities of American agents to Soviet Union, a hostile country. Lonetree's 25 year sentence was soon reduced to 20. Lontree, convicted in 1987, the same year as Pollard went free in 1996, after serving only 9 years. Pollard remains in prison in the 21st century with no end in sight.

Or take the case of Albert Sombolay who spied for Iraq during the Gulf War and endangered the lives of American soldiers by selling samples of American chemical protective gear to the enemy. Sambolay got 35 years and subsequent reductions in his sentence brought it down to 19 years with further appeals pending until it just dropped off the screen. Or the case of Aldrich Ames, a high ranking CIA official who spied for the Soviet Union. Ames was responsible for the deaths of at least 11 American agents and for compromising a number of American programs. Although his crime was far more serious, Ames received the same sentence that Pollard received for his 1 count of passing classifed information to an ally - life in prison.

The stark contrast between the Pollard case and other recent cases of espionage readily illustrates why Appellate Court Justice Steven Williams described the Pollard case as, "a fundamental miscarriage of justice."

See also the Comparative Sentences charts.
Assorted Cases

(In alphabetical order by last name)

    * Mohammad Reza Alavi
    * Alejandro Alonso
    * Aldrich Ames
    * Michael Ray Aquino
    * Leandro Aragoncillo
    * David Boone
    * Thomas Dolce
    * Stanislav Gusev
    * Ahmed Al Halabi
    * Robert Hanssen
    * Abdel Kader Helmy
    * William Kampiles
    * Robert Kim
    * Steven Lalas
    * Cheri Leberknight
    * Peter Lee
    * Wen Ho Lee
    * Robert Lipka
    * Clayton Lonetree
    * Xiaodong Sheldon Meng
    * Ronald Montaperto
    * Harold Nicholson
    * Ronald Pelton
    * Earl Pitts
    * J. Reece Roth
    * Albert Sambolay
    * Joseph & Amarylis Santos
    * Michael Schwartz
    * Michael Walker

    * Cuban Spies
    * FALN Terrorists