Popcorn Sutton, Legenday Moonshiner, Headed to the Pokey

[WSJ_law_blog]

With the economy now reminiscent of the Great Depression, we bring you some legal news straight out of Prohibition.



Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton, a legend of Appalachia, is headed to prison for moonshining and weapons charges. (In case you couldn’t guess, he’s the fellow in the hat in this AP photo.)

Last year, Sutton pleaded guilty to illegal production of distilled spirits and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. A federal judge Monday sentenced him to 18 months in prison, the Asheville Citizen Times
reports.

“I’m a very sick man,” Sutton told the paper. “I’d like to die at home instead of in a penitentiary.”

Sutton was arrested in March for allegedly running a moonshining operation that produced hundreds of gallons of the hard stuff.

The defendant was well known thanks to his book “Me and My Likker,” along with Internet videos and cable TV documentaries on how to make moonshine.

Robert Reeves, a federal prosecutor, introduced several of the videos Monday in court, claiming they showed that Sutton “flaunted criminal activity.”



“Your moonshining is a violation of the law,” the judge told Sutton. “I don’t care how it is glamorized on the History Channel or the Discovery Channel.”

We have to imagine that Popcorn is a fan of George Jones, a/k/a “The Possum,” one of the legends of country music.

Here are lyrics from his classic, “White Lightning”

Well in North Carolina, way back in the hills
Me and my old pappy had a hand in a still
We brewed white lightnin’ ’til the sun went down
Then he’d fill him a jug and he’d pass it around
Mighty, mighty pleasin, pappy’s corn squeezin’
Whshhhoooh . . . white lightnin’

Let’s see, old dying dude has to go to prison for making his own hooch, drinking it should be punishment enough. Vick has his life destroyed for dog fighting. Skilling would have been better off being executed than his suffering for doing exactly what the U.S. government is doing from an accounting perspective with all its newly owned entities, FNM, Freddie, AIG, GM, Chrysler, Citi and likely any bank accepting TARP. The Government pays all Paulson’s pals $100s of Billions after his pals (including himself) made Billions creating the problem and to make matters worse the dudes who brought on the financial mess are they same ones fixing it. The U.S. government has a stated policy of preemptively burning innocent women and children alive thousands of miles from our borders yet these dudes are criminal? The U.S., state and local governments confiscate 70% of your income and 50% of your assets after death and this dude is a criminal?