Legal Commentary

Will Third Time Be the Charm for Liberty City Trial?

By Jeralyn

The Liberty City aka Sears Tower trial begins again in Florida after two mistrials in which jurors couldn't agree on a verdict.

Prosecutors tried to prove that the original seven defendants, a group of laborers from the tough Liberty City neighborhood, provided “material support” to a terrorist organization, and planned to destroy buildings. But they relied mostly on the men’s words, citing their loyalty oath to Al Qaeda and aggressive comments made to two F.B.I. informants.

More concrete evidence did not emerge. Testimony showed that a search by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of what it called the group’s headquarters did not yield guns, explosives or blueprints for an attack. Besides a samurai sword, no weapons were found.

This was the trial hyped by Alberto Gonzales to the media. The Bush Administration played the "fear card" to the max and still couldn't get a guilty verdict. It should be more difficult this time around.

As University of Miami Law Prof Bruce Winnick says, it's more like a grade B movie plot than a criminal case.

Our past coverage of the trials is accessible here.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 27, 2009 (boomark / email).