9-11 Detainees Hold Off on Guilty Pleas

[babylonsister]

9-11 Detainees Hold Off on Guilty Pleas
By Daphne Eviatar 12/8/08 5:25 PM


As Spencer just noted, it’s yet another day of strange and tumultuous proceedings, the five detainees charged with planning the 9/11 attacks withdrew their initial attempt to plead guilty before the Guantanamo military commission. Although all five detainees this morning sent a letter to the judge indicating they wanted to plead guilty, later in the day, according to the ACLU, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and two other detainees charged with crimes related to the 9/11 attacks said they would postpone entering pleas until the competency of two additional co-defendants is determined.

It’s also unclear whether the military judge in the case is empowered under the Military Commissions Act to accept guilty pleas, and to impose the death penalty, which the government is seeking, or whether a military jury must make those decisions.

Organizations such as the ACLU and Human Rights Watch have been saying the military commissions proceedings are a sham and that the defendants should all be tried in a federal court instead. President-elect Barack Obama has also indicated that he intends to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, where the five men are being held, and to shut down the military commission system. Today’s guilty pleas suggest that at least some of the defendants want nothing to do with an American system of justice, however — whether by military commission or in federal court.

more...

http://washingtonindependent.com/21363/9-11-detainees-hold-off-on-guilty-pleas

[SpiralHawk]

1. "I are completely innocent and, um, HErow-ic. Smirk." - Commander AWOL (R)