Posted on 08/10/2006 3:49:02 AM PDT by IrishMike
CHICAGO - A federal judge Wednesday denied prosecutors' request to seat an anonymous jury in the trial of a Bridgeview, Ill., man charged with funneling money to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve ruled that prosecutors failed to show Muhammad Salah and his co-defendant Abdelhaleem Ashqar, of Virginia, are likely to intimidate or harass jurors.
"(T)he mere invocation of the word `terrorism,' without more, is insufficient to warrant such an anonymous jury," St. Eve wrote in a ruling released Wednesday.
Salah's attorney, Michael Deutsch, called the ruling a small but significant step toward a fair trial.
"Just because the government invokes the word `terrorism' doesn't mean they are terrorists," he said.
Deutsch argued that jurors would be unfairly prejudiced against Salah if they knew their names and backgrounds were being kept secret.
"It creates the impression in them that there is some danger associated with the defendants," he said.
In her ruling, St. Eve noted that prosecutors acknowledged Salah and Ashqar aren't dangers to their community at the men's bond hearings.
While St. Eve ruled the identity of jurors won't be kept secret from the defense or prosecution, she suggested she may place their names under seal.
That likely would prevent the public and press from learning jurors' identities.
Salah's attorneys first suggested the possibility of releasing jurors' names to the defense and prosecution but keeping them under seal.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestate.com ...
Maybe we should change their title of "Terrorist" to something more PC. Any suggestions?
Allah Travel Agents
I like 'dead men walking'.
L
Naughty people?
bwahaha! i suppose they were arrested because no one associated danger with them! what morons lawyers are!
Danger if any would unlikely be with the gentlemen on trial, but would likely be with their friends.
Maybe we should change their title of "Terrorist" to something more PC. Any suggestions?
.
.
.
Watching the feeds on the Englant plane plot..
The BBC is actually using the word 'terrorists' !!!!
We don't have to change what we call these scumbags.
Did 'turban durbin'have anything to do with this?Illinois politics seem to provide a perfect place for our enemy.Who would want to serve on a jury there?
Spell check Mike,
use the spell check
.
.
.
ENGLAND
To self, thanks for the late reminder.
Nasrallah's Men Inside America
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14208386/
Aug. 14, 2006 issue - It began, as the Feds tell the tale, with a run-of-the-mill tax-fraud scheme. Imad Hammoud and his ring of Lebanese Americans from the Detroit area would buy boxes of cigarettes in North Carolina, where the state tax on smokes is among the lowest in the country, allegedly truck the goods back to Michigan and sell them at a profit of more than $10 a carton. Hammoud, an immigrant with ties to Hizbullah, according to an indictment filed with a U.S. district court in Michigan earlier this year, would then wire a portion of the earnings to a member of the group in Lebanon. By 2002, Hammoud and some of his colleagues were believed to be running $500,000 worth of cigarettes a week across state lines and expanding into stolen contraband and counterfeit goods, including Viagra tablets. During a three-month period that year, authorities allege, more than 90,000 Viagra knockoffs were purchased, with a plan to sell them as the real thing. "They're small, they're high in demand and they're easily transportable," says Bob Clifford, a senior FBI agent. "They're the perfect medium."
Molecular Redistribution Experts.
"Born 1965 in Belleville, IL
Federal Judicial Service: Judge, U. S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois Nominated by George W. Bush on March 21, 2002, to a seat vacated by George W. Lindberg; Confirmed by the Senate on August 1, 2002, and received commission on August 2, 2002. "
That sounds like a democrat social program.
Ah, I see. They could be unfairly prejudiced by this knowledge, but the possibility of threats against their lives and families is something we trust they will ignore?
Only a lawyer can so strain at a gnat while ignoring the camel it rode in on.
Maybe it's time for this country to WAKE UP! For those out there that don't believe that these people want to destroy all of us in this country, go Cheney yourself. You are not only deceiving yourself but putting the rest of us in mortal danger in your utter stupidity.
It's way past time for us to call a spade a spade. It's time for profiling and if you are offended, too bad. What's worse, being offended or dead?
Its time to pull a Roosevelt and round up these folks and give them a free vacation in Arizona or somewhere that we canb keep an eye on them.
That will never happen again. The ACLU will get us all killed. They always put a chokehold on the majority for the feelings of one.
Religion of Piece Activists. Get it - Piece. Man I'm on a roll this morning.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.