Word: courtrooms
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...come to believe that he witnessed two modern miracles. But for Lindh, 21--raised amid the mellow comforts of California's Marin County and charged with betraying his country--another miracle came to pass last week in a northern Virginia courtroom, where defense lawyers and federal prosecutors announced a plea bargain. The deal abruptly ended the case against Lindh, who pleaded guilty to charges of aiding the Taliban and possessing explosives; in exchange, the government dropped terrorism and conspiracy charges that could have brought him three life terms plus 90 years. Federal District Judge T.S. Ellis III must approve...
Moussaoui stood in a federal courtroom in Virginia last Thursday and told Judge Leonie M. Brinkema that he was a "member of al-Qaeda" and wanted "to enter a plea today of guilty, because this will ensure to save my life." But since he had not cut a deal to avoid the death penalty, Brinkema told him to think it over and recessed proceedings for a week. Such antics have dominated the trial ever since Brinkema ruled Moussaoui could represent himself--after he claimed his court-appointed lawyers were trying to kill him. He has filed more than 60 petitions...
...military is openly displaying contempt for the trials, closing ranks and acting as if they've been betrayed. Their uniformed, bemedaled presence in the courtroom can be read as an attempt to remind the judiciary where the real power lies. At the opening hearing for five men accused of allowing a massacre at a church in Suai, the five army Chiefs of Staff attended with their wives, a dramatic reminder that those supporting the defendants are more powerful than those who will decide their fate. On Thursday morning, the trial of Yudyat Sudryato, a commander of the military's Kopassus...
...bellyaching, this time, would not get him off. The attorneys for Hutomo Mandala Putra (known as Tommy Suharto) insisted their client's stomach cramps and headache had kept him in his comfortable, air-conditioned cell?outfitted with a television and a stereo system?and away from the Jakarta courtroom where a five-judge panel was set to rule on whether their defendant was guilty of arranging the murder of a judge, fleeing from justice for 12 months, and possessing illegal rifles, handguns, grenades and explosives. Such was the reputation of Tommy, 40, the youngest son of former Indonesian President Suharto...
...masterminded Syafiuddin's killing, paid $11,000 to two gunmen and lent them one of his own pistols to use in the attack. (Those two were convicted of murder last February and are serving life sentences.) Tommy will likely appeal the ruling; some fear that his absence from the courtroom last week was a ploy by his lawyers to manufacture grounds for an appeal. And the sentence handed down is considerably softer than the life terms being served by his henchmen. "According to any legal logic," says Frans Hendra Winata, a Jakarta-based legal expert, "the mastermind behind the killing...