9/11 Trial Poses Unparalleled Legal Obstacles for Both Sides

[babylonsister]

9/11 Trial Poses Unparalleled Legal Obstacles for Both Sides

By ERIC LICHTBLAU and BENJAMIN WEISER
Published: November 13, 2009


WASHINGTON — How do you defend one of the most notorious terrorist figures in history?

One step, legal analysts say, may be to ask for a change of venue.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s lawyers, whoever they are, will no doubt question whether he can get a fair trial from a jury sitting, as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. noted, in a Manhattan courthouse “just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood.”

Then will come the inevitable challenges to interrogation methods used on Mr. Mohammed during more than six years in detention. The government has acknowledged waterboarding him 183 times to extract information about the Sept. 11 attacks, which he eventually admitted planning.

Finally, if Mr. Mohammed is convicted, defense lawyers will most likely plead for jurors in New York, historically more cautious about capital punishment than much of the rest of country, to spare the sentence of execution and send him to prison for the rest of his life instead.

The Obama administration’s decision to try Mr. Mohammed and four other terrorism suspects in a civilian court provoked sharp debate among politicians and lawyers about whether American courtrooms are the proper place for so-called enemy combatants, whose suspected crimes were hatched overseas and who viewed themselves as participants in a war against the United States. Both sides agreed that defense lawyers and prosecutors would face unique problems in what is likely to be a hugely complex and emotion-laden case.

Whatever the case, if it actually makes its way before a jury, it promises to be a trial like no other in memory, an extraordinary clash involving the morality of torture, due process rights of foreign terrorist operatives, and the ability of civilian courts to handle national security cases.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/us/14legal.html?_r=1&hp

[Hamlette]

1. the beauty of our legal system is it is designed for obstacles.

not all that many trials are "easy" but there is a process in place to come as close as we can to justice.

It was a brilliant move and I'm more than a little disappointed that Webb came out so vocally against it.

[annabanana]

2. No one screws a pooch like chucklenuts screws a pooch.

Or manages to screw so many, so publicly, for so long.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. It's more of a defense of our constitutional/judicial system rather than defense of

a notorious defendant.