European Terror Suspects to Be Tried in the U.S.
CNN reports that "the European Court of Human Rights ruled against five terror suspects Tuesday, saying that they can be extradited to the United States despite their claims that they will be poorly treated."
It would have been incredible if the European Court of Human Rights had decided this case in favor of the suspected terrorists. Such a decision would have concluded that the rules of the U.S. criminal justice system — the same ones that apply to every criminal tried in this nation — somehow violated European notions of justice. This from a set of countries that not only has engaged in wild swings in their ideas of representative government and fairness over the last two hundred years, but regularly operates a system that most Americans would reject. In Europe, there is generally no right to a trial by jury from criminal cases. In Europe, there is no separation of power between judges and prosecutors. In Europe, often hearsay testimony is allowed and illegally obtained evidence is not excluded from trial. In Europe, the burden of proof is in the prosecution's favor — in other words, the government need not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty.
If you were going to be tried, would you pick America or Europe? I think any sane defendant would want to be tried in the United States. In fact, criminal trials in Europe bear more resemblance to U.S. military trials — which I have long thought are fair, but do not rise to the same levels of protection as U.S. civilian trials.
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Apr '11
Re: European Terror Suspects to Be Tried in the U.S.
It genuinely blows my mind how many European lawyers believe the reduced hearsay protections in GITMO to be gross human rights violations whilst simultaneously believing the presence of hearsay protections that their own courts lack (most European criminal defendants don't even get GITMO's protections) to be needless complexity that leads to injustice. It's like listening to colleagues in Iraq talking about support for terrorism being inhumanly evil, while continuing to donate to Hezbollah et. al.
It's surprisingly easy for educated people to have a huge black hole of dehumanizing hate suck in all reasoning that comes near it.
Aug '10
Re: European Terror Suspects to Be Tried in the U.S.
Sounds like a setup to me. CNN as handmaiden to WH makes US Court seem tough, tough enough for those "freedom fighters from Al Qaeda" .Even if it has dropped off the narrative, these yahoos probably don't update effectively. I will wager that they are thinking KSM will be the last big Gitmo trail, and after they zap him publicly they will have the momentum of the disgusted public and outraged press to play.I don't trust their motives when it's too obvious that POTUS and the EU are so smitten with each other.
Aug '10
Re: European Terror Suspects to Be Tried in the U.S.
One might prefer a European court if one's crime was subject to the death penalty. Since the ECHR found this way, I can only speculate that the crimes in question are not capital.