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9/11 trial will test Boise attorneys - Defense team members David Nevin and Scott McKay will be ‘making sure the government plays by the rules’ in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Idaho Statesman, The (Boise, ID) - Sunday, April 20, 2008
Author: Dan Popkey

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As Idaho’s most famous defense lawyer, David Nevin is no stranger to unpopular causes. But his decision to defend the man the government says planned the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, puts him in a league of his own.

“In terms of sheer numbers of people killed, wounded and traumatized and the added terror element, nothing compares to 9/11 in the annals of history,” said former U.S. Attorney for Idaho Betty Richardson.

Nevin and his partner, Scott McKay, have volunteered to help military lawyers represent Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the most important detainee of 300 suspects held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. His defense is the top priority of the ACLU’s John Adams Project, which is raising money and finding lawyers to help represent the detainees.

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Until now, Nevin had declined comment. But he agreed to talk to the Statesman about one thing: His motive for agreeing to defend Mohammed.

Now in Detroit trying a case with celebrity lawyer and Ruby Ridge co-counsel Gerry Spence, Nevin said he’s obligated to defend constitutional principles, including the presumption of innocence for those accused of the most horrific of crimes.

“You can’t have a justice system that is really fair and works unless you’re willing to provide a defense for everyone,” he said.

“I don’t know what the government can prove about what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed did or did not do. I’ve heard the rumors; I’ve seen the newspaper stories. But that’s different. You cannot say that if the government makes really, really bad allegations against someone, then no one should step forward. That leads to a justice system that really doesn’t work when it needs to work.”

McKay declined to comment. But Matthews, who knows both men well, said, “He’s brilliant. I think he feels the same way that David does.”

McKay and Nevin will be working with Navy Reserve Capt. Prescott Prince, the lead defense lawyer in the 9/11 case. Prince and Nevin share a similar temperament: They’re both soft-spoken with a record of representing unpopular defendants.

Nevin, 58, graduated from the University of Idaho Law School in 1978. His career is marked by a string of celebrated defenses, from neo-Nazis to Idaho’s worst environmental criminal, from business titans to a mother who helped her 14-year-old buy a pistol he used to kill a policeman.

A 2004 terrorism trial prepared Nevin and McKay for the new case. They represented Sami al-Hussayen, a University of Idaho graduate student and Saudi national charged with three terrorism-related offenses. Despite a rush to judgment by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and University President Bob Hoover - who called a press conference to say he felt betrayed - a Boise jury acquitted al-Hussayen.

But the case that first made Nevin famous was Ruby Ridge, when his client, Kevin Harris, was accused of murdering a deputy U.S. marshal at the end of a North Idaho standoff. Harris was cleared of all charges by a federal jury in Boise after a 60-day trial. Randy Weaver, represented by Spence, was acquitted of murder and conspiracy but convicted of lesser charges.

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