Posted on 11/14/2005 6:09:49 PM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of senators reached a compromise Monday that would allow detainees at Guantanamo Bay to appeal the rulings of military tribunals to the federal courts.
Under the agreement, detainees who receive a punishment of 10 years in prison to death would receive an automatic appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Lesser sentences would not receive automatic review, but detainees still could petition the court to hear their case.
In addition, the 500 or so detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba would be allowed to challenge in federal court the procedure under which they were labeled an "enemy combatant."
The compromise proposal allows the federal court reviews in place of the one tool the Supreme Court gave detainees in 2004 to fight the legality of their detention — the right to file habeas corpus petitions in federal courts.
"Instead of unlimited lawsuits, the courts now will be looking at whether you're properly determined to be an enemy combatant and, if you're tried, whether or not your conviction followed the military commission procedures in place," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in an interview.
The Senate will vote on the compromise provision Tuesday. Approval would mean the Senate endorses the Bush administration's military tribunals for prosecuting suspected foreign terrorists at Guantanamo. The Supreme Court agreed last week to review a constitutional challenge to those tribunals.
Graham sponsored the original provision the Senate added Thursday to a defense bill on a 49-42 vote. It simply barred suspects from filing habeas corpus petitions used to fight unlawful detentions, a vote that came in spite of last year's Supreme Court decision granting detainees such rights.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I can't imagine these courts hearing 500 individial appeals. I have to believe that once the first few appeals show that the tribunals are constructed fairly, that the rest of the verdicts and sentences will just "flow" based on those initial cases.
never mind, I see its teh DC circuit.
is Janice Rogers Brown on that court?
It's named in the amendment, IIRC, but I didn't pay that close of attention while Lindsey was talking.
One shot through the system - so I assume District Court with rights of appeal all the way to SCOTUS. Object of interaction with Article III system is to confirm status of detainee as "enemy combatant." Once through, those folks are cemented into the military tribunal system in place at Gitmo.
It makes me wonder if the Senate deal won't be SCOTUSized, too, just one more thing for these $#!#heels to appeal.
I also wonder what this means for Padilla - a US citizen. what I see in this law is what I would have given to Padilla, he can challenge his status as a combatant, but once its clear that a fair process has made that determination - he belongs to the military after that. However, if they are giving that to non US persons, I imagine Padilla will (sadly) get a biger bite of the apple.
These people are from Afghanistan, and the plan is to send them home. But the lawyers wand activists won't allow that either. Since when is everyone in America focused on prisoners? I thought people get raped and murdered all of the time in American prisons, and I don't see anyone worried about that. Must be McCain, POW posng as war hero and expert. A view of war from a prison. Did a POW ever win a war?
So, sentence them to 9 ten year consecutive sentences.
Agreement???????? sounds like aa give away.
Padilla is a different story. I think if you're arrested on American soil, and you're an American, you must be given all your Constitutional rights, even if you've been actively treasonous. But those SOBs in Guantanamo should have been summarily shot after interrogation. Or save the bullets and shove `em out the back of a C-47 afterward. Either way, it's as fair as they deserve for fighting a war by hiding among civilians.
ROFLMAO!
That is a great solution. That or don't sentence them to jail at all. Just put them on parole...in Guantanamo. Of course, we can't have them walking all over the base, so we'll have to put them in barracks there, but hey, they'll be just as free as their women if we let them go down the hall and pick their lunch off a cart every day. More free, unless we put their sorry asses in burkhas.
US Senate to US Military: Take no prisoners.
"... the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit."
GREAT! That's where all Clinton's appointments are.
What are the senators planning .. to set the killers free ..??
is Janice Rogers Brown on that court?
I have no idea.
Terrible precedent
"A bipartisan group of senators reached a compromise Monday that would allow detainees at Guantanamo Bay to appeal the rulings of military tribunals to the federal courts. "
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THE REPUBLICANS CAVED.....AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just recently an article said that the Senate agreed to NOT allow detainees to appeal to US courts, then of course the terrorist lovers and the idiots complained, so the Republican Senators fall all over themselves to cave.
It's sickening!
Don't forget the Senate recently passed 90-9 McCain's bill to prohibit not just torture, but "degrading treatment", as defined by anyone, of the terrorists and gave them the same rights as US citizens, quoting constitutional amendments, and made the UN law binding for the US, by putting into the US code.
Why don't we just surrender to the Iranian Mullahs and Bin Laden?!
I don't think the Dems control the DC circuit anymore, but I could be wrong.
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