To say that Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell’s prospects look bleak following her conviction of five of the six charges brought against her is to understate her situation to a very great degree.
To quote from the updated Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghislaine_Maxwell)
“……….carrying a potential custodial sentence of up to 65 years imprisonment: one of sex trafficking of a minor (maximum: 40 years), one of transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity (10 years) and three of conspiracy to commit also-charged choate felonies (15 years total).”
Were she to receive 65 years this would effectively mean a whole of life sentence.
This FACT in-and-of-itself demonstrates the vindictive savagery of the USA’s criminal justice system.
Bear in mind that in the UK whole of life sentences are reserved for the most serious offenders. Therefore compare the conduct that Ghislaine Maxwell was accused and convicted of with the offences committed by the list complied by Wikipedia below:
GOTO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prisoners_with_whole-life_orders
The FACT of the matter is that the USA incarnates more people for longer than many other countries – even states judged not to be democracies. Again, a Wikipedia article articulates this very well.
GOTO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_United_States_incarceration_rate_with_other_countries
The reasons for this are paradoxical. This because when they drew up the US Constitution the “Founding Fathers” introduced elements of democracy that were revolutionary at the time. This in-and-of-itself was a huge concern for the British government and the British monarchy for they feared that the idea would catch on!
The central problem with the US Criminal Justice system is that it is run by persons who are duly elected into it’s offices are subject to the popular will.
Now it would be very wrong to accuse the average American of being more vindictive than the average Briton, or German or even a Frenchman! Sadly, we collectively are as good and as bad as the others.
In centuries past, in the British Isles some convicted offenders were publicly executed by the hideous method known as hanging, drawing and quartering. It is a matter of historical record that large numbers of the public gathered to spectate upon this barbarism and as the victim was dismembered cheered the executioner on.
What is so, so depressing is that there are morons alive today who were they able to travel to a land where such a method of execution was still practised and where the victim was someone like the offenders on the whole of life list above, they would do so and would cheer during the spectacle.
Here is a FACT that members of the mainstream political parties (Conservative/Labour/Liberal-Democrat) will not mention as it will be seen as costing votes is that introducing democracy into the criminal justice system and this includes responding to the public’s wishes as to where public money is spent is deleterious to the functioning of that system.
The veteran politician Ken Clarke (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Clarke) who notwithstanding his enthusiasm for the EU and all it’s works talks a lot of sense eloquently put it thus: “There are no votes in prisons.” He was not talking about the issue of enfranchising prisoners but of the FACT that given the choice of prioritising public expenditure, the general public will choose the NHS, Education and Welfare but prisons will be at the very bottom of the list.
Explain to the average man or woman in the street that some prisons are badly provisioned and desperately need more money spending on them, one is likely to receive the curt reply: “If the criminals don’t like the conditions they are kept in, they shouldn’t have committed their crimes in the first place!”
This is EXACTLY the problem the USA has writ large!
District Attorneys (the equivalent of Crown Prosecutors) are elected as are judges. This means that lawyers who think like the late Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Pakenham,_7th_Earl_of_Longford) will have about as much chance of being elected as my friend Piers Corbyn (http://www.weatheraction.com/) would have of being elected as their MP by the voters of Runnymede and Weybridge!
So, back to the Unfortunate Ghislaine Maxwell. Her lawyers have already stated that they will appeal the verdict. Although my knowledge of law mainly concerns English Law, in following the trial I noted various legal points which Ghislaine Maxwell’s highly experienced lawyers will use.
That said, the outcome is of course not certain and if the appeal fails Ghislaine Maxwell will be facing either the rest of her life in prison or a large part of it. There has been wide speculation that the US Prosecutors will offer her a deal by which they will recommend that her sentence be reduced if she will provide evidence and will be the “State’s Witness” to bring about the conviction of others.
Being elected, these officials will attach great importance to securing the conviction of “high profile” persons as they perceive (correctly) that this helps the US law enforcement agencies. You see, the USA is a highly divided society not only in terms of race relations but in income distribution, life chances and health. Thus, give the opportunity to bring one of the high profile members of the super rich and the great and the good to justice and to send such a person to prison helps as those people at the bottom of US society feel that the sword of justice falls upon others as well.
It is for this reason that US Prosecutors will have as their #1 target HRH the Duke of York!
Ghislaine Maxwell has already had first hand experience of the harshness of the US Prison system. Thus she will be concerned that not only does she spend the shortest possible time incarcerated but also in the most relaxed prison regime.
Her lawyers will (in the unlikely event that they need to) point out to Ghislaine Maxwell that there may be a possibility to have her transferred to the UK to serve her sentence there. Failing a successful appeal this would appear to be her best prospect.
The US Prosecutors are unlikely to offer her this until they have exhausted all possibility of bringing the Duke of York to trial.
On this the BG can be quite confident in stating that there is NO PROSPECT of a British Home Secretary doing other than refusing to sanction an extradition order served by a British court (including the Supreme Court) during the lifetime of Her Majesty the Queen.
Her Majesty has famously and correctly discharged her duties as monarch faultlessly studiously keeping out of party politics whilst ensuring that such comments she has made from time to time enable the monarchy to remain relevant and “in touch”.
However: Boris Johnson will already have been told that the Queen will NOT allow a Home Secretary to agree an extradition order served upon her second born son.
The FACT of the matter is this: We do NOT have a constitutional monarchy in the UK! We have a “limited monarchy”. The difference is far, far more than semantic!
Her Majesty is bound constitutionally by the Bill of Rights enacted into statute law in 1689. That she does NOT act as the Head of Government leaving that to the Prime Minister is a well established convention. Although it is unthinkable that the monarch would ever occupy the role of PM, it none the less is only a convention that she does not do so!
Now of course there is NO PROSPECT of Her Majesty taking over from Boris Johnson!
There is however the prospect of Her Majesty, if faced with a Home Secretary determined to allow the extradition of her second son to the USA would sack that Home Secretary.
You see, when Prime Ministers sack and appoint cabinet minsters they do so using not their own authority but that of the sovereign. Thus were she ever so minded, Her Majesty could summon (that takes the form of an order and not a request) a cabinet minster to attend upon them and duly sack them!
Now, you can bet your bottom dollar that the present Home Secretary Priti Patel is aware of this!
The other thing you can bet your bottom dollar upon is that the US State Department will have acquainted the US Prosecutors of this situation!
Of course, the US Prosecutors will be aware of the Queen’s age and that nobody is immortal.
Extradition requests can take a long time – especially if all the lawyers involved keep their feet off the judicial accelerators. Thus, expect this case to drag on for years.
When viewing crimes and then comparing sentences it is a sad fact (in black ink) that those who are very wealthy, or part of the social elite have less punishment than the lower classes.
But my personal view is that you do NOT use children for sexual activity, NEVER.
For these crimes life should mean life.