TESTAMENT's Alex Skolnick On Czech Jailing Of LAMB OF GOD's Randy Blythe - "It’s Getting More Difficult By The Day"
July 12, 2012, 12 years ago
TESTAMENT guitarist ALEX SKOLNICK has shared his thoughts on the June 27th arrest and detainment of LAMB OF GOD singer RANDY BLYTHE, who was charged with manslaughter in the death of a fan at a Lamb Of God show in May 2010. Blythe is alleged to have thrown the fan from the stage after the fan repeatedly climbed on stage while the band was performing.
Blythe posted $200,000 bail but is being held in jail pending a process in the Czech judicial system that allows negotiation between prosecutor and judge after bail is posted.
An excerpt of Skolnick's blog concerning this situation is available below:
"As of this writing, it has now been more than two weeks. It’s getting more difficult by the day to think of a friend unfairly locked away in a foreign jail, kept from family, loved ones, liberty and life. One is reminded of films like Midnight Express and novels like Franz Kafka’s The Trial (the type of creative works that Randy appreciates on a deep level, but surely never thought he’d have to live through).At this point all we can do is try to stir up noise, keep tweeting, petitioning and drawing more attention to this case and hopefully get this great, well deserving guy out of jail. There are a few petitions going around, including this one from Change.org. It can’t hurt to Tweet media and government figures, including the State Department Bureau Of Consular affairs, @TravelGov, an official US agency that describes its purpose as 'protecting lives and interests of US citizens overseas.' So far not a peep out of them.
Adding to the frustration, this case is barely making a dent outside of Randy’s hometown of Richmond, VA. As of yet there has been no national TV coverage of the case, despite brief mentions in the LA Times, New York Times and Rolling Stone (shortly after the arrest, with little or no follow up). One can’t help wonder if prejudice against metal and its reputation could have something to do with this. As one fan, @GarthGreen13, posted on Twitter: 'Justin Bieber gets speeding ticket & its headlining news, Randy gets put up 4 MANSLAUGHTER in another country, nothing.'
One would like to think that simply being an American citizen comes with certain inalienable protection against mistreatment by foreign justice systems, especially those of European Union countries such as the Czech Republic. And it would seem like being a four time Grammy nominated singer would help. Apparently not."
To read Skolnick's blog in its enirety, click here.