Many legal questions still need to be answered about how to handle Guantanamo Bay detainees.
This dilemma continues to be a hot topic along with the 9/11 Trial Security Plans, as previously discussed.
Recently, however, Judge Royce Lamberth weighed in on the Guantanamo Bay detainees when he spoke at an event organized by the American Bar Association.
In his opinion, US courts have been used to try gangs more deadly than some Guantanamo Bay detainees. Lamberth presided over a 2004 trial in which six members of a gang called Murder Inc. were accused of killing at least 31 people, including witnesses to the gang’s crimes.
It was one of the most tightly guarded trials and the judge and jury were protected by bullet proof glass.
Lamberth insisted the court system can handle the cases involving terror suspects. However, he didn’t want to get into a political debate about whether detainees should be tried in military commissions or civilian courts, as we have previously discussed.
President Barack Obama recently ordered Thomson Correctional Center in rural Illinois will be the new home for a limited number of terrorist suspects who are currently Guantanamo Bay detainees.
The judge suggested a gag order could be imposed on all the lawyers in any such case to keep the proceedings from getting out of hand.
He also said that it is possible defendants will use the trial to launch anti-American invective but it probably cannot be prevented since it is a free country.
- Illinois to get some Gitmo detainees, official says (CNN)
- Attorney General Holder’s Speech about the Trial Decisions (Department of Justice)
- Obama, Holder predict conviction in 9/11 case (Associated Press)
You Don’t Have To Solve This on Your Own – Get a Lawyer’s Help
Civil Rights
Block on Trump’s Asylum Ban Upheld by Supreme Court
Criminal
Judges Can Release Secret Grand Jury Records
Politicians Can’t Block Voters on Facebook, Court Rules
