KMF Purpose and Positions

Purpose and Positions

The Keith Maydak Foundation was founded by friends of Keith Maydak. Its original goals were to work to get Keith a new trial and to see that the truth about his case came out. In fact, this Web site is one major way for us to expose the conspiracy that took place between AT&T and the United States Government.

Since then, the Foundation has expanded and is involved in trying to make changes to the criminal justice system and to the laws of the United States to make it much harder for these kinds of injustices to happen.

One of our first goals was to eliminate the absurdly harsh Federal Sentencing Guidelines for the crime of money laundering. While we certainly do not advocate leniency for those who launder money for profit, the present laws are so broad, defining money laundering as a ``financial transaction over $10,000 with criminally derived funds,'' that money laundering has been used as a sentence-enhancer in any case where more than $10,000 is involved.

If you steal a car and sell it, you should be charged with car theft and theft of stolen property. However, when you use the money you got from selling the stolen car to put a down-payment on a house, you should not be charged with a separate crime with a potential sentence greater than the two actual crimes combined!

Recently, the United States Sentencing Commission has considered making this exact change. Please help us make this a reality. To see what you can do to help, click here.

The Foundation recognizes that our country's criminal justice and law-enforcement systems can be a powerful tool threat to our liberty. Pornography legislation consistently threatens our freedom of speech. ``Fairness'' legislation threatens our freedom of the press. And the Communication Decency Act threatens to severely cripple the Internet.

The Foundation proposes a number of changes to help protect our liberties.

Restrict law enforcement agencies' ability to use civil forfeiture before trial and restore the ``innocent owner defense''.
Allow those who have had property seized to appeal the seizure without having to pay or escrow exorbitant fees.
Repeal RICO. Though we have no objection to new laws being passed to combat organized crime, RICO is simply too broad and too easily abused, often serving as a battering ram to coerce confessions from the innocent.
End charges of "conspiracy''. Charge with a crime those who commit crimes. These laws make it possible for people to be convicted of a crime simply for discussing it and have a significant chilling effect on our freedom of speech.
Pass the Fully Informed Jury Act and ensure that juries are aware of their constitutional obligation to try the law as well as the person.
Prohibit judges from applying excessive pressure to juries who cannot reach a verdict. Prohibit an Allen Charge in every court in the country.
Make it easier for people to hold officials personally responsible and liable for knowing official misconduct.
Revamp the Grand Jury system. It should be far more difficult to get an indictment. In particular, there should be someone present whose job it is to argue against indictment.