Word: courting
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...last court-martial to hold the national attention was the 1971 trial of Lieut. William Calley. "It has been a very long time since a case has engaged the public nationwide for a sustained period," says Eugene R. Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice who teaches military law at Yale. The charges that Calley directed the massacre of 104 Vietnamese villagers in 1968 fed the national debate over the war and his 1971 trial underlined the country's divisions. Politics intruded into the Calley case when Congress refused to release secret testimony about the incident. President Richard...
...Japan. In an age when electrons travel the world in an instant, it took no time at all before everyone knew: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks who was subjected to waterboarding 183 times, will face trial in a New York City federal court with four other Guantánamo Bay detainees. (See pictures of Gitmo detainees...
...even if the government can make a strong case without the tainted evidence, Mohammed's treatment could cause problems. It's possible - though not likely - that a court could rule that the government doesn't have the right to prosecute someone who has been severely abused in custody. (Previously, suspects have been released even when their abuse didn't prejudice evidence against them, but there's no clear precedent for terrorism cases.) Other issues likely to be raised by the defense, says Dratel, are finding a jury that can be considered impartial, especially blocks from the World Trade Center site...
...Some Republicans and family members of the victims argue that the spectacle of trying Mohammed in federal court, instead of trying him before military commissions or simply holding the suspects indefinitely, risks endangering New Yorkers, exposing classified material and giving the plotters a platform to make themselves martyrs. "These terrorists planned and executed the mass murder of thousands of innocent Americans," Senator John Cornyn of Texas said Friday. "Treating them like common criminals is unconscionable...
...dispute over whether to try Mohammed in criminal court may not be resolved until a verdict is reached, but the debate is already raging. Says Dratel: "It's a victory for our system of justice and for the rule of law." Others disagree but think Bharara will succeed. "It's a dubious decision to send the case to federal court to be criminally prosecuted," says former top Bush White House lawyer William Burck, who worked with Bharara in the Southern District. "But if there's anyone who can pull it off, it's Preet Bharara...