Legal News

Judge in Hamdan Trial: ?Maybe We Got It Wrong This Time?

By Dan Slater

While we were getting ready to blog the jury verdict in the Salim Hamdan trial, this rolled in from Reuters:

Salim Hamdan attends his trial inside the war crimes courthouse at Camp Justice, the legal complex of the U.S. Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay, July 22, 2008. (AP Photo/Janet Hamlin, Pool)

The possibility of a mistrial emerged on Tuesday in the United States’ first war crimes trial at Guantanamo, after prosecutors said the judge gave flawed instructions to a jury of military officers in the case against Osama bin Laden’s driver.

According to Reuters, prosecutors took issue with how Navy Capt. Keith Allred, the judge, gave instructions on what constitutes a war crime. Hamdan is charged with conspiring with al Qaeda and providing material support for terrorism while working as bin Laden’s driver, from 1996 until his capture in November 2001.

Here’s Hamdan’s charge sheet.

“It’s kind of coming up late in the game,” said Judge Allred, who reportedly told the lawyers to consult legal scholars and journals and try to discern Congress’ intent in the 2006 law underpinning the military commissions at Gitmo.

“Maybe we got it wrong this time,” Allred said. “I don’t know that that would be grounds for a mistrial.”

We’ll keep you posted as the story unfolds.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 05, 2008 (boomark / email).