Deliberations to Begin in Jose Padilla Trial
Bump and Update: Deliberations begin Wednesday in the trial of Jose Padilla and his co-defendants.
Here are the jury instructions (pdf), made available on PACER Tuesday.
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Defense Closing Arguments in Jose Padilla Trial
Lawyers for accused terrorism supporters Jose Padilla and co-defendant Kifah Wael Jayyousi gave their closing arguments today.
Shorter version from Jose Padilla's lawyer: He was a student, not a terrorist. As to the mujahedeen form with Padilla's fingerprints:
The critical piece of prosecution evidence is a "mujahedeen data form" Padilla allegedly filled out in July 2000 to attend an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan. The form bears seven of his fingerprints, but Caruso said they are found only on the first page and the back of the final page — consistent with Padilla simply handling the form, rather than writing on it.
Of the 3,000 taped telephone calls, Padilla's voice was only on 7 of those introduced at trial.
As to the use of code words, Padilla didn't use any on the taped calls. The Government wants the jury to believe that when the other two defendants used words like "tourism" and "football" they meant "jihad" and that the words "eggplant" and "zucchini" were references to military weapons and supplies.
Bill Swor, Jaylousi's lawyer, told the jury the government was fear-mongering.
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