More justice system failure vs terrorists
Bruce Manhattan judge considers scrapping Sept. 11 perjury charges against San Diego man By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press Writer NEW YORK On the eve of trial, a judge is considering tossing out perjury charges for a second time against a San Diego man because he was handcuffed while he testified to a grand jury about his associations with two Sept. 11 hijackers. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin scheduled a Memorial Day hearing to decide whether a jury will begin hearing the case against Osama Awadallah the next day. Defense lawyers argued Tuesday that the case should be dismissed to be consistent with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday that found it unconstitutional to force capital murder defendants to appear before juries in shackles during a trial's penalty phase. "It's a serious issue," the judge said, indicating there would be no trial if she rules in their favor. An Awadallah lawyer, Elizabeth Fink, told the judge that the grand jury should be viewed the same as a trial jury because jurors saw Awadallah handcuffed and were told he was dangerous as they decided whether to indict him. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robin Baker said the grand jurors were told Awadallah was a material witness and they were not to judge him adversely merely because he was in prison clothing and handcuffs. The judge asked prosecutors what they thought the jurors were thinking on Oct. 10, 2001, a month after the Sept. 11 attack. "They aren't supposed to draw a conclusion but they are told to sit further away and he is shackled?" the judge said. "It is nice that she told them not to draw any adverse conclusions, and they probably ignored it." Another assistant U.S. attorney, Karl Metzner, said the government disputes an assertion by the defense that members of the grand jury were told to sit farther away from prisoners because they were dangerous. In 2002, the judge criticized investigators and tossed out perjury charges against Awadallah, 24, of El Cajon, Calif. She said the government's jailing of witnesses for a grand jury probe of the 2001 terrorist attack was unconstitutional. A year later, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals restored the charges against Awadallah, noting that the Jordanian student failed to come forward to say he had known two of the Sept. 11 hijackers. Awadallah first was arrested as a material witness in the Sept. 11 probe after his telephone number was found in the car of Nawaf Al-Hazmi, a hijacker on the plane that hit the Pentagon. In the past month, prosecutors indicated they would call grand jurors as witnesses at Awadallah's trial to refute defense claims that incorrect statements he made resulted from memory lapse, misunderstanding, exhaustion, confusion or intimidation. The judge called the government plan "unusual, if not novel," in part because only one prior case was cited in which a grand juror testified at a trial about a defendant's demeanor before the grand jury. She disallowed it. "The government has tried hundreds, if not thousands, of grand jury cases without resorting to this unfair and prejudicial tactic," she said. She said grand jurors could testify only about such things as the temperature, layout and occupancy of the room as Awadallah testified or whether he showed signs of physical injury. 050525 201420 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources often lacking in public schools. 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