Comments on: Judge Halts Moussaoui Trial after TSA Leaks

By: G A Phillips

G A Phillips — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 17:23:51 +0000

OH and Ray its kind of hard to defend someone with the don't use the "Judicial activism" thing because its wrong, when said dude you are defending with it, has typed the following words in his statement(judges and the law they interpret)buddy.

By: G A Phillips

G A Phillips — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 17:05:20 +0000

I was meagerly trying to point out the true anarchy that is woven into the heart and spirit of the liberal socialists and trying to be a "dumb ass" and entertain as I got my point across, so please slow your donkey roll.

By: Donkey Stomp

Donkey Stomp — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 16:04:16 +0000

Moussaoui Sentencing Halted...

This is why fighting terrorism in our court system doesn't work....

By: DC Loser

DC Loser — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 12:51:45 +0000

WaPo has details on the TSA lawyer in today's paper. Apparently she attended all the trial and hearings. She's supposedly an expert in terrorism, and knew very well the judge's restrictions on coaching witnesses. Even her emails to witnesses cautioned them not to respond to her. I think she's in a lot of deep shit.

By: Ray

Ray — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 09:50:55 +0000

Yhoi,its good to see a liberal finally type what they really want done with our judicial system

G A Phillips, don't put your own sh@# on others, that was right wingers mantra about 'judicial activism' etc, not a liberal one. What about "coaching witnesses" -- it is a regular practice to disallow witness' access to the court materials to avoid from making biased testimony. In the same way as they lock out jury in high profile cases to avoid their exposure to outside influence. Any credible lawyer would know that and would not disseminate such information even if they did not specifically knew about particular judge's order. The whole incident is a stark example of outrageous incompetence of the whole prosecution team there...

By: G A Phillips

G A Phillips — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 05:15:53 +0000

Yhoi,its good to see a liberal finally type what they really want done with our judicial system, but why put 9/11 into it?

By: Yhoi

Yhoi — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 01:54:49 +0000

This is more judicial idiocy. These are the kind of judges the ACLU like. Find the bast### guilty and fry him.

RA- This doesn't go far enough. We would be a lot better served if we did away with the judicial system as a whole. Rule of law is a quaint remnant of a pre-9/11 era. If we want to ensure that we are free, judges and the laws they interpret need to be discarded.

By: A Blog For All

A Blog For All — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:31:08 +0000

Moussaoui Trial In Doubt?...

This mishandling of the case may irrevocably damage the case against Moussaoui. Not a good way to start off a Monday morning....

By: Ugh

Ugh — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:05:52 +0000

It's a sentencing trial, the only issue is whether he gets death or life-in-prison, IIRC. Because the Supreme Court has mandated super-due process for the death penalty, this bar on coaching witnesses may have something to do with that.

By: denise

denise — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 22:42:00 +0000

It's quite possible the TSA lawyer didn't know about the pretrial order. After all, wouldn't you think if she did know, she would find some less traceable method than email to communicate to the witnesses? I'd like to hear from some criminal lawyers on this. Lawyers prep their witnesses all the time; it's malpractice not to in most cases. Why in this case did the judge have an order disallowing that? Is this commonly disallowed for prosecution witnesses? I know criminal defense lawyers prep their witnesses.

By: RA

RA — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 21:38:14 +0000

This is more judicial idiocy. These are the kind of judges the ACLU like. Find the bast### guilty and fry him.

By: Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator

Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 20:06:11 +0000

Judge Unexpectedly Halts Moussaoui Trial

...

An angry federal judge unexpectedly recessed the sentencing trial of confessed al-Qaida conspirator ...

By: Aubrey

Aubrey — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 19:45:21 +0000

It will be interesting to find out whether the TSA lawyer was a member of the prosecution team or was sent as an observer for the TSA. The product that was distributed sounds more like an observer's notes than a deliberate attempt to influence witnesses. It's possible that an observer would not know about the pre-trial order.

By: DC Loser

DC Loser — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 19:26:16 +0000

I'd have to agree with James here. If the TSA clowns indeed did this on their own, what kind of sanctions could be imposed on their professional credentials?

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 19:09:01 +0000

legion: Could well be. My guess is that the TSA clowns went off on their own tangent thinking they were "helping" and the lawyers were aghast when they found out.