One killer, one vote

One more reason to hate lawyers:

Taking up a cop killer's cause, a top lawyer's group said yesterday the state law banning convicted felons from voting should be overturned because it disenfranchises a disproportionate number of minorities.

The New York City Bar Association jumped into the debate, contending the statute violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The group made its argument in a brief filed yesterday in the 2nd Circuit Federal Appeals Court in Manhattan in support of convicted cop killer Jalil Muntaqim.

"There is a vast body of evidence showing that African-Americans and Latinos are arrested more often, convicted more often and given harsher sentences than members of other racial groups who commit the same types of crimes," the bar association wrote.

Lawyers for Muntaqim argue the New York law is discriminatory because about 80% of New York's prisoners are African-American or Latino, while those groups make up less than 30% of the state's population.

Muntaqim, who changed his name from Anthony Bottom, is one of three Black Liberation Army terrorists convicted of murdering NYPD Officers Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones in 1971.

Only two states, Maine and Vermont, allow jailed felons to vote. The issue became a major topic after President Bush was elected in 2000 by a razor-thin margin.

Gov. Pataki is in favor of keeping the statute as it is, aides said. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who is seeking to uphold the law in court, had no immediate comment on the bar association legal brief.

But Joanne Page, executive director of the Manhattan-based parolee-assistance group Fortune Society, said the state law should be changed to allow felons to vote once they have served their time."We want people coming home to carry the full load of citizenship," Page said.

Lawyers for the imprisoned Muntaqim are scheduled to argue their case before the full 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in April.

So now it's racist to prevent murderers from voting? And liberals wonder why Bush won the election.