Rev Matt Hale(Civil Case)...Amicus Comentary For Motion To Leave (Document 236) To Restrict...By Jon Smetana

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO


MATTHEW HALE
Plaintiff


V.


FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS


C.A NO-14-CV-00245



AMICUS COMENTARY FOR MOTION TO LEAVE (DOCUMENT 236) TO RESTRICT


COMES NOW... Jon Smetana, a seventy one (71) year old man and friend of the plaintiff Matthew Hale as well as a concerned citizen. I have no criminal record, I am not, nor have I ever been a member of Matthew Hales religious group, Creativity. I was born a raised a Roman Catholic but today I practice no organized religion, consider myself- like Thomas Jefferson - a Deist. And like Jefferson and other founding fathers, I'm a strong supporter of  the original concepts of the United States Constitution and especially those God given rights contained in the first amendment of the bill of rights. freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion. Time honored jurisprudence proves that this freedom is not limited to the conventional expressions of faith but also extends to belief systems such as that held by Matthew Hale.

In other words, just because Hale's belief system does not fall into such recognized groups such as Christianity, Judaism or Islam, as an American protected by the constitution, he is free to believe, express and practice his belief  as are the followers of the above named more recognized faiths.

I read of Matthew Hale's court case in the Chicago Tribune as well as other sources and I am convinced that Hale neither hurt or threatened to hurt - much less kill! - anyone. In other words by combination of perjured testimony from a bought and paid for FBI "informant" and lack of a decent defense, Matthew Hale was unjustly and illegally imprisoned for a crime he never committed or ever existed. It is my belief he was sent to prison , like Galileo, because he openly expressed  ideas that the present establishment rejects. Those of us who believe that the United States of America is "free" and we are safe from lawless persecution should see in the fate of Matthew Hale a similar happening to the fate of Otto Warmbier, a young American college student arrested in North Korea in January 2016 for attempted theft and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

While incarcerated , he fell into a coma and never regained consciousness, dying in June 2017. After fifteen years of a forty year sentence served in solitary confinement for a ?non crime". I think its time Americans rethought the idea that they are living in a "free country" for Matthew Hale along with his mother, Evelyn ( 79 years old) and his friends are in fact being tortured every day by a system fully as unjust and cruel as that which killed young Otto Warmbier.

Matthew Hale's faith, Creativity, isn't a "terrorist organization" nor is it a "violent gang." If we acknowledge the historical crimes committed in the name of today's recognized religions - the Spanish inquisition, the Salam witch trials and the horrors being perpetrated today in the name of Islam - the idea that Matthew Hale should be imprisoned for forty years  simply because he believes, speaks and acts in a way that frightens some people in the establishment is the epitome of hypocrisy and cruelty and the antithesis of what this country is suppose to be all about.

SUBMITTED JULY 26 2018