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Convictions: Slate's blog on legal issues
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Am enjoying today's discussion of U.S. military commissions. But I fear the jumping-off point for the discussion, an endorsement of France's prosecution of Farid Benyettou et al . , rests on shaky ground. It's dangerous to try to draw parallels between Read More...
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One last point to Phil. France uses the inquisitorial system of criminal justice: no jury, greatly relaxed rules of evidence, including the absence of a hearsay rule. (There is no need to worry about confusing the jurors or animating their biases—the Read More...
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Eric writes : "We are agreed, yes? That procedural protections in civilian courts are too high for war-on-terror prosecutions? ... If yes, then there is just an empirical question of whether we should demand that federal judges relax procedural protections Read More...
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Phil, what puzzles me is why people are so sure that reducing procedural protections in civilian courts is superior to constructing an alternative system of military courts with lower procedural protections. We are agreed, yes? That procedural protections Read More...
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Also , our point wasn’t to issue any sort of blanket indictment of military justice, or American justice, as a whole. To the contrary. Same government, yes, but very different rules—and in the traditional court systems, it’s the courts that make those Read More...
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Eric , I don’t think you’ve correctly stated the Bazelon/Lithwick standard here: It’s not that all Pentagon balking is per se evidence of crap commissions. It’s that the balking, plus the seven years of after-the-fact tinkering (the CSRT “do-overs” or Read More...
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Eric, we're fast approaching the end of my French vocabulary, and I really don't want to resort to using Google's translator to keep up with this conversation. But I think you're misapplying the Catch-22 standard to the French sentencing decision announced Read More...
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Phil, The French trial also fails the Bazelon/Lithwick/ Heller standard, which I would rephrase as follows. If the government takes an action on the basis of secret evidence and the publicly visible outcome serves the government's interest (e.g., conviction), Read More...
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Eric, I think Joseph Heller would agree with the Catch-22 scenario you've described for the commissions at Guantanamo Bay. They truly are damned if they proceed and damned if they don't. Perhaps unintentionally, I think you've arrived at the right conclusion: Read More...
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Well, Phil , after reading the Pentagon's press release on the decision to drop charges (for now) against al-Qahtani, I admit to being overcome by the more cynical angels of my nature. On the one hand, I can see a pretty sensible prosecutorial rationale Read More...
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The Associated Press reports this morning that Pentagon officials have dropped military commissions charges (for now) against Mohammed al-Qahtani—better known as Detainee 063 after the Time cover story detailing his interrogation. Prosecutors alleged Read More...
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Today's Washington Post reports that the Bush administration has decided to charge Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani with before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay for acts committed before Sept. 11 -- to wit, his alleged participation in the bombing of the Read More...
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Benjamin and Emily appear to agree that, as he puts it, "[ t]o the extent the eventual convictions of KSM et al rely on coerced testimony, even indirectly,... the Defense Department should not put them to death ." But should the prospect of execution Read More...
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