Our (In)Justice System?

May 13, 2014

After having served only four and a half years in relation to charges of Murder in the second degree, Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Attempted Robbery, Resisting Arrest and Assaulting an Officer, Julian Jacob Bashir was released Friday from the Dade Correction Institution near Florida City.

In an effort to avoid entangling the city of Miami a costly retrial brought about by a series of successful appeals and motions filed by the defendant’s attorney, the District Attorney agreed to time served.

Witnesses recall Mr. Bashir entering Lionheart Military Supplies in December of 2010, heavily armed and opening fire on the store clerk, Arnold Capsin, when he made a ‘sudden move’. Jason Timmeral, a long-time patron of the store, was killed in the ensuing gunfire. The clerk, however, managed to retrieve a weapon and hold the gunman at bay until Police could arrive. While attempting to flee the military surplus store Bashir was wounded by the Metro-Dade Police and subsequently taken into custody.

Despite a lengthy and eloquent defense in which medical and psychology experts declared Bashir had suffered a brief mental break with reality and no longer posed a threat, the judge who found him competent to stand trial and the jurors who found him guilty on all counts felt otherwise.

After his release Bashir said, “Perhaps this time I can show the world I’m not as bad as I’m made up to be…”. Emma Timmeral, the widow of Jason Timmeral, and her two daughters have begun to circulate petitions asking for the Recall of the District Attorney citing ‘gross incompetence’ and ‘dereliction of duty’ with regards to the safety and welfare of the citizens of the Miami-Dade metroplex.

<<– Two pictures are shown. Left: Bashir in handcuffs, being taken up the stairs to the courthouse, right: a picture of him walking from the State Prison, a free man.–>>