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A Terror Trial, With or Without Due Process
by Decius at 11:11 am EDT, Sep 10, 2006 |
In the first World Trade Center bombing case in 1993, prosecutors had to give the defense a list of 200 unindicted co-conspirators. The list, he writes, was “delivered to bin Laden” ” and “was later found during the investigation of the African embassy bombings.”
Thats an interesting datapoint. Of course, Bush's response to this threat was to simply not have trials at all. The court has required trials, so they've got to hold them. What confuses me is why they can't preserve proceedural fairness while improving information security. Haven't you limited the suspect's ability to communicate with free conspirators? Don't the defense attorneys have security clearances? (Of course, the latter could be used as a tool by the government to remove any useful defense attorney, but that need not be the case.) |
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RE: A Terror Trial, With or Without Due Process
by possibly noteworthy at 11:37 am EDT, Sep 10, 2006 |
Decius wrote: What confuses me is why they can't preserve procedural fairness while improving information security. Haven't you limited the suspect's ability to communicate with free conspirators?
That assumes you are going to win convictions in all of the cases. When some of them inevitably walk free, they are going to be captured by Al Qaeda and held for interrogation. They will repeat what they previously revealed under questioning, and they will be forced to pass along any new information gleaned during the trials. Then, in all likelihood, they will be killed, but the security of the trial will have been breached. |
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A Terror Trial, With or Without Due Process
by possibly noteworthy at 10:26 am EDT, Sep 10, 2006 |
Not much here, but noted in passing. What’s a fair trial and how much due process does it require? In the Hamdan case last June, four of the justices who voted against the commissions stressed that the president could always go back to Congress to get the authority he wanted. The issue, then, is more about the court of public opinion: how a trial, without the customary procedural rights, would be perceived in the United States and abroad. In the first World Trade Center bombing case in 1993, prosecutors had to give the defense a list of 200 unindicted co-conspirators. The list was delivered to bin Laden and was later found during the investigation of the African embassy bombings.
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