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DOJ to reduce prison communications limits on 'American Taliban' Lindh

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A spokesperson for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said Wednesday that the DOJ will limit prison restrictions on John Walker Lindh, a California man known as the "American Taliban." Lindh is serving a 20-year sentence in an Indiana federal prison after pleading guilty in 2002 to supplying services to the Taliban. DOJ spokesman Dean Boyd said certain restrictions on Lindh will be lifted Friday. Boyd did not discuss the details of the restrictions, but Lindh's lawyer said Lindh will be allowed to visit with more people. After pleading guilty to a charge of aiding the Taliban, Lindh repeatedly asked then-president George W. Bush to reduce his 20-year sentence. Bush declined to do so. The Associated Press then sued the DOJ to gain access under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to Lindh's petition for commutation. In December, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the lower court's ruling that Lindh's petition fell under a FOIA invasion-of-privacy exception and as such was not available to the public.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on March 19, 2009 (boomark / email).