Alleged Terrorist Indicted For Murder of Five American Soldiers

Alleged Terrorist Indicted For Murder of Five American Soldiers


Civilian Court Trial To Be Watched Closely



By Dell Hill via Just A Grunt
                                                      
Blogging pal, Just a Grunt @ Jammie Wearing Fools, focuses on a civilian court criminal case that will attract considerable attention over the course of the trial’s duration.  The charges were leveled over events that took place in Iraq, and US law is being used for the prosecution of the alleged crimes.
                                                   
The ‘suspect’ was arrested in Canada and then extradited to the US.

I am uneasy with trying cases that involve acts of war in a civilian court.

“Today, a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., returned an indictment charging Faruq Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa, 38, aka “Faruk Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa,” “Sayfildin Tahir Sharif” and “Tahir Sharif Sayfildin,” with aiding in the murder of five American soldiers in a suicide-bomb attack in Iraq in April 2009.

Specifically, he is charged with the murders of Staff Sergeant Gary L. Woods, 24, of Lebanon Junction, Ky.; Sergeant First Class Bryan E. Hall, 32, of Elk Grove, Calif.; Sergeant Edward W. Forrest Jr., 25, of St. Louis; Corporal Jason G. Pautsch, 20, of Davenport, Iowa; and Army Private First Class Bryce E. Gaultier, 22, from Cyprus, Calif.

The indictment also charges the defendant with conspiring to kill Americans abroad and providing material support to that terrorist conspiracy to kill Americans abroad.”

I totally understand Grunt’s concern.  I am of the same breed of concerned American.

There are a fistful of potential problems surrounding such a prosecution, not the least of which is the Bill of Rights question that all American citizens enjoy, but foreigners have never heard of...at least not until they lawyer up and discover how easy it is to walk away from a charge of homicide based on the failure to Mirandize the accused.

There are also “rules of criminal procedure”, which are followed to the letter in civilian courts, but simply do not apply in military tribunals.

A test case, for sure.  And sadly, if this prosecution fails, the accused can never be charged again under the law of double jeopardy in the United States, no matter how convincing the evidence might be.

We shall watch this case very closely.