Charges dropped in Ricin case!

Paul Kevin Curtis was released on Tuesday after charges were dropped in the case of the ricin letter sent to Obama and members of congress. The Feds are citing "new information" with few other details. The charges were dropped "without prejudice," so they can recharge him later. 

Since his arrest last Wednesday he and his attorney have denied all involvement the the sending of these letters. Curtis's attorney Christi McCoy claimed in an interview with CNN that her client had be framed. 

"I do believe someone who was familiar and is familiar with Kevin just simply took his personal information and did this to him," -McCoy

He was released after a search if his home, his car and his ex-wife's home turns up no evidence. The FBI said they found no evidence of ricin, castor beans or any apparatus to produce ricin. 

"There was no apparent ricin, castor beans or any material there that could be used for the manufacturing, like a blender or something," said Agent Brandon Grant in court as reported by The Associated Press. 

According to Fox News sources the FBI was checking into the claim Curtis had been framed by a neighbor with a grudge. Also, the FBI said they had searched the home of another suspect. No information as to what that search yielded. 

The question many have is why was he arrested in the first place? A few things led to his arrest:

• The letters had the exact same phrase in them as a recent post Curtis made on his Facebook account "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance." 
• The letters used the same sign off line as many of his post on places like Facebook 
• When the FBI was questioning one of the congressmen, who was to receive one of the letters, his name came up. 4) the bombing in Boston had law enforcement on high alert.

It appears the FBI unfortunately let fear and speculation rule the day. With no suspect in the Boston bombing and then these ricin letters there seemed to be fears that they could be related to each other. So they found a guy that used the phrases In the letters on social media and he was then arrested.

Many will argue the FBI didn't have cause to arrest him, but the FBI says the evidence they had was enough cause to detain. Mr. Curtis in this case.

The fact remains, with or without cause in this particular case, the FBI and other agencies of our government appear to run with close to no supervision and at times completely outside of the laws of our nation. For example the fast and furious debacle and ever the Olympic bombings in Atlanta.

In the end, our government agencies may need more supervision, but must still be able to effectively do their jobs. On the other, hand something needs to be done with policy to prevent completely innocent Americans from spending time in jail with weak circumstantial evidence. Cases like these have a history of destroying the lives of those wrongly accused and jailed. Because just because the charges are dropped it does not mean the public's presumption of guilt goes away with it.