Guantanamo/Detainees
Two Legal Groups Offer Guantanamo Defense Help
Posted Apr 4, 2008, 11:56 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Two legal groups have announced they will field an experienced team of lawyers to represent Guantanamo detainees charged in the Sept. 11 attacks.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers say they will offer to provide experienced lawyers to represent Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, and other so-called high-value detainees, the New York Times reports. The civilian lawyers would supplement the work of military lawyers already representing the detainees, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.).
The administration has announced it will seek the death penalty against seven of the detainees, including five charged in the attacks.
The two groups plan to use the cases to expose problems in the trial process, the Times story says. That could lead to conflicts with military lawyers who want to focus on defending individuals rather than exposing flaws in the system.
But the chief military defense lawyer for the Guantanamo cases, Col. Steven David, told the Times he welcomes the help. “It is a huge development in terms of the resources that might be available to the accused,” he said.
David told the Wall Street Journal he intends to follow ABA guidelines for defense representation in civilian capital cases. They call for defendants to have at least two qualified attorneys, an investigator and a "mitigation specialist" to argue against execution.
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