Barrett Brown. Photo: Nikki Loehr.
“In addition to improvising a few extra lines in the course of my allocution that were not present in the written version, I didn’t deliver the line 'I think your Honor can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time,” writes Barrett Brown in an open letter to an editor at Dallas Magazine. Brown is a native of Texas, and his sentencing took place last week in a Dallas courtroom.
“I took that out because, by the time I delivered the allocution, it had become painfully obvious that he could do no such thing,” Brown writes.
“Frankly, I am not going to lie in court unless I am getting paid whatever these FBI agents are getting paid.”
Barrett Brown has been in prison since September 2012. On January 22, the security journalist was sentenced to a total of 63 months in prison, and ordered to pay $890,000 in "restitution."
"The Barrett Brown Review of Arts and Letters and Jail: If Anyone Needs Me, I’ll Be in Prison" [D magazine]
Previously on Boing Boing: "Barrett Brown’s sentence is unjust, but it may become the norm for journalists"
