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Might the Somali pirate have an Apprendi claim to try to thwart his federal prosecution?

By Douglas A. Berman

This latest news from New York federal courts all of a sudden gives me a great excuse to end my afternoon with a little pirate blogging from Apprendi-land: A Somali teenager accused of holding hostage a U.S. ship captain in the Indian Ocean after an attempted hijacking will be tried as an adult in New York on piracy charges, a U.S. judge ruled on Tuesday. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, the sole surviving accused pirate from the foiled bid to hijack huge U.S. container ship the Maersk Alabama earlier this month, was put in custody until his next court appearance on May 21. Muse is charged with piracy, conspiracy to seize a ship by force, conspiracy to commit hostage taking and related firearms offenses.  He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 21, 2009 (boomark / email).