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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.

More....

Jayyousi is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Jordan, a U.S. Navy veteran and an engineer who was a public school official in Detroit and the District of Columbia. He also ran an organization called American Worldwide Relief in San Diego that Swor said provided aid to oppressed Muslims, not supplies for terrorists.

"Dr. Jayyousi wasn't buying bullets. Dr. Jayyousi wasn't buying ammunition. Dr. Jayyousi wasn't sending fighters over there," Swor said. "Dr. Jayyousi was providing relief."

Check out The Christian Science Monitor, its editorial on the case for tomorrow and its three part series which

....reveals the troubling ways in which the administration shifted charges against Mr. Padilla, tried to avoid judicial review of his case, and likely damaged his mental health by using extreme isolation to extract information from him.

Today's portion of the series is on the troubling implications of the case for our legal system.

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  • Display: Sort:
    I hope Jacob Hornberger (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by Edger on Tue Aug 14, 2007 at 06:21:13 PM EST
    founder of The Future of Freedom Foundation, was wrong back in April, but I have a feeling he wasn't...

    The Sham of the Padilla Trial
    by Jacob G. Hornberger, April 30, 2007

    If Padilla is convicted by the jury, the judge will likely sentence him to serve much of the rest of his life in a federal penitentiary for having conspired to violate federal criminal laws against terrorism.

    On the other hand, if Padilla is acquitted, the U.S. military is likely to exercise its post-9/11-acquired power to declare Americans (and foreigners) "enemy combatants" in the war on terror and throw Padilla back into a military dungeon. That is where he was before the government, as part of a clever legal maneuver that was obviously designed to avoid Supreme Court review of Padilla's request for habeas-corpus relief, converted him from an "enemy combatant" in the war on terror to a federal-court criminal defendant charged with violating federal terrorism laws.

    There is much at stake here...

    PACER?!?!?! GRRRR (none / 0) (#2)
    by allwrits on Wed Aug 15, 2007 at 01:10:47 AM EST
    One of the things I really, really hate is that 8 cent per page charge on pacer.  The 7th & 8th Circuits stopped enforcing it, until the AOC's webcops made them put it back.

    I don't get paying for access to public documents.

    ::RANT NOW COMPLETE::