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UNITED STATES v. MOUSSAOUI: 4th Circuit Opinion
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ^ | April 22 | 4th Circuit

Posted on 04/22/2004 3:11:06 PM PDT by kazander

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To: kazander
Bio Of Leonie M. Brinkema, USDC-Eastern District Virgina

Brinkema, Leonie M.
Born 1944 in Teaneck, NJ

Federal Judicial Service:
U. S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia
Nominated by William J. Clinton on August 6, 1993, to
a seat vacated by Albert V. Bryan;
Confirmed by the Senate on October 18, 1993, and
received commission on October 20, 1993.

Education:
Rutgers University, B.A., 1966

Rutgers University, M.L.S., 1970

Cornell Law School, J.D., 1976

Professional Career:
Trial attorney, Public Integrity Section, Criminal
Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 1976-1977
Assistant U.S. attorney, Eastern District of Virginia,
1977-1983
Trial attorney, Office of International Affairs, Criminal
Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 1983-1984
Part-time legal instructor, Northern Virginia Criminal
Justice Academy, 1984-1985
Private practice, Alexandria, Virginia, 1984-1985
U.S. Magistrate, U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia, 1985-1993

Race or Ethnicity: White

Gender: Female
21 posted on 04/22/2004 4:14:48 PM PDT by Smartass (BUSH & CHENEY 2004 - THE BEST GET BETTER)
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To: kazander
That's an excellent summary of what this decision means.
22 posted on 04/22/2004 4:28:53 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: P-Marlowe
I agree. The court says essentially that there's gotta be a way to do this and that they should go do it under the court's guidelines.

Check your freepmail.
23 posted on 04/22/2004 4:37:52 PM PDT by xzins (Retired Army and Proud of It!)
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To: Congressman Billybob
Ping for analysis far better than anything you'll find from Rita Cosby (or me; I'm not even going to try my hand at deciphering this one).
24 posted on 04/22/2004 4:55:40 PM PDT by steveegg (Radical Islam has more in common with Islamic populations than the mainstream media has with America)
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To: Dog
That was very good and I am glad you translated!
25 posted on 04/22/2004 6:08:01 PM PDT by PhiKapMom (AOII Mom -- Support Bush-Cheney '04 -- Losing is not an Option!)
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To: PhiKapMom; steveegg
An AP whack at it.. FRom the Bakersfield Californian

Court: Moussaoui case can proceed

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court on Thursday allowed the government's case against terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui to proceed and threw out a penalty that would have eliminated the heart of the government's only Sept. 11 case.

The three-judge panel backed Moussaoui on the key issue, granting him access to three al-Qaida prisoners who have made statements that potentially could exonerate him.

The judges of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., ordered the trial judge to work out a compromise that would give Moussaoui access to written accounts of the witness statements.

Moussaoui's constitutional right to a fair trial demanded such access, even trumping the government's need to protect national security by denying an accused terrorist access to his former al-Qaida colleagues, the court said.

However, the judges said the trial judge - Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Va. - went too far in punishing the government for disobeying her orders to allow Moussaoui and his lawyers to question the captives by a remote video hookup.

The appeals court threw out Brinkema's two-pronged penalty, which consisted of banning any government evidence related to the Sept. 11 attacks and barring the death penalty - a punishment the government vowed to seek if Moussaoui is convicted.

"No punitive sanction is warranted here because the government has rightfully exercised its prerogative to protect national security interests by refusing to produce the witnesses," the court said.

Moussaoui, who was arrested a month before the attacks while arousing suspicions at a flight school, is the only U.S. defendant charged as a conspirator with the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers. He has admitted belonging to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network but denied he was part of the plot, indicating instead that he was to have participated in a subsequent al-Qaida operation.

The FBI in Minneapolis had sought to search Moussaoui's computer after the French citizen's arrest for immigration violations but was turned down by bureau headquarters. Members of a commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks have questioned whether the plot would have been discovered if the Minneapolis request had been granted.

Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has persisted in prosecuting the case in a federal court rather than a military tribunal, said the ruling upheld the government's core position.

"The court held that the government can provide Zacarias Moussaoui with a fair trial while still protecting critical national security interests," he said in a statement. "The government will not be required to provide Moussaoui with interactive access to detained terrorists. This ruling also allows us to seek the death penalty and to present evidence regarding the conspiracy of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."

On the key issue of access to witnesses, the appeals court said that from at least one witness, "a jury might reasonably infer ... that Moussaoui was not involved in Sept. 11. We therefore conclude that Moussaoui has made a plausible showing" that the witness would be favorable to him.

Chief Judge William W. Wilkins wrote the opinion. Judges Karen J. Williams and Roger L. Gregory concurred with portions but dissented from other parts.

The appeals court rejected Brinkema's view that it was not possible to craft a compromise to give Moussaoui access to the witnesses - saying that written statements from the prisoners could substitute for direct questioning.

Gregory said in his dissent that the instructions for drafting the witness statements for the jury put Brinkema "in a thoroughly untenable position."

The court instructed Brinkema to work with the government, Moussaoui and his court-appointed attorneys to draft the language of the statements that will be presented to the jury. The judges said the statements should use the exact language from the witness interrogations "to the greatest extent possible."

The court said Moussaoui and his lawyers could pick from the summaries of the witness interrogations the statements they want to present to the jury and Brinkema then would prepare the final language. When she finished, Moussaoui would have the final say on whether to submit the statements to the jury.

"We are asking the court to do something that it has stated cannot be done," Gregory said, referring to Brinkema's earlier findings. "It will be difficult, perhaps impossible, for the district court to credibly prepare substitutions that it would consider admissible."

The witnesses have not been publicly named, but media reports have said they included two top operatives, Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

26 posted on 04/22/2004 7:09:17 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi Mac ... Become a FR Monthly Donor ... Kerry thread archive @ /~normsrevenge)
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To: kazander
It was a huge mistake to allow this "case" to enter the judicial system. IMO the GW admin should correct that mistake by sending this spawn of Satan to Gitmo for military trial and execution ASAP.
27 posted on 04/22/2004 8:07:03 PM PDT by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Any day you wake up is a good day.)
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
Or better yet, turn him loose.

In say, West Texas. Or maybe near a Lower Manhattan fire station.
28 posted on 04/22/2004 8:28:45 PM PDT by Redbob
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
Or better yet, turn him loose.

In say, West Texas. Or maybe near a Lower Manhattan fire station.
29 posted on 04/22/2004 8:28:52 PM PDT by Redbob
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To: kazander
The district court should not have rejected the compromise of presenting written summaries of the statements to the jury.

I don't see that quite the same. The disagreement is that the district court was wrong in determining that no compromise is possible with written summaries, and ordered the district court to work something out. That sounds reasonable.

They agreed that the summaries the government did produce basically twisted witness for the defense into being witness for the prosecution. The prosecutor tried to pull a fast one and got caught -- that's possibly what pissed off the district court enough to impose the sanctions it did.

30 posted on 04/22/2004 8:36:27 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: Redbob
Works for me. As long as an edict is issued that he isn't killed to quickly.
31 posted on 04/22/2004 9:07:46 PM PDT by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Any day you wake up is a good day.)
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To: kazander
Ashcroft just interviewed on FoxNews....thumbs up from him. This is what they were looking for!
32 posted on 04/23/2004 9:14:57 AM PDT by shield (The Greatest Scientific Discoveries of the Century Reveal God!!!! by Dr. H. Ross, Astrophysicist)
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To: Prince Charles
P.S.: The case should be transferred to a military tribunal -- after November.

Moussaoui should have been shot at dawn on 9/12/01 in lower Manhattan.

Anything else is weakness.

33 posted on 04/24/2004 3:44:10 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Now you go feed those hogs before they worry themselves into anemia!)
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