Constitutional Law

Court OK's Prosecution's Withholding of Information; Padilla Sues John Yoo

The prosecution's failure to turn over (and the government's subsequent destruction of) CIA interrogation videotapes is insufficient grounds to overturn Jose Padilla's conviction, ruled U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Cooke of the Southern District of Florida on Monday, according to an article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Defense lawyers argued that the tapes' destruction raised questions as to whether the prosecution turned over all potentially exculpatory evidence. Judge Cook's ruling was based on classified statements not provided to the defense.

Padilla recently filed a lawsuit against John Yoo, a former Justice Department attorney who provided the administration with legal justification for what he alleged was "unconstitutional confinement and 'gross physical and psychological abuse,'" under the theory that "a lawyer who gives the green light to clearly illegal conduct is an accomplice to that conduct," reported the New York Times.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on January 12, 2008 (boomark / email).